A Christmas Gift

Christmas is a time for giving, as we all know.

Lewis Hyde’s 1983 book The Gift describes the two worlds of market exchange and gift exchange. In a market exchange one’s wealth increases the less something is used and in a gift exchange one’s wealth increases the more something is used. Hyde is writing about art, and poetry in particular, and explains how gifts must keep circulating to stay alive. A piece of music that inspires another musician will in due course inspire more – and so on.

These events can be market transactions but they are still overwhelmingly gifts; an artist must give out, not because they think it is an efficient way to profit from them, but because it is their gift.

We all have our own gifts, be it art, advice or something else, and the market economy is dwarfed by this gift exchange - for example think of all the common kindnesses we share such as opening a door for someone. And that is one reason why Christmas is a time of gifts and gift giving. It’s about so much more than the presents, it’s about what we can give, not sell.