{"id":16474,"date":"2022-11-24T23:31:08","date_gmt":"2022-11-24T22:31:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.toomik.net\/helen\/blog\/?p=16474"},"modified":"2025-11-24T23:09:50","modified_gmt":"2025-11-24T22:09:50","slug":"daily_2850_-_christmas_gift_of_the_year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.toomik.net\/helen\/blog\/2022\/11\/24\/daily_2850_-_christmas_gift_of_the_year\/","title":{"rendered":"Daily: 2850 – Christmas gift of the year"},"content":{"rendered":"

Every year since 1988, the Swedish Retail Institute has announced a “Christmas gift of the year”<\/a> – a product that somehow embodies the zeitgeist<\/i> for that year. Apparently it is based on “an independent analysis of consumption trends” but it’s probably just some group’s fingers in the air.<\/p>\n

Sometimes they capture the beginning of a trend, or the introduction of a product that stays. The CD player in 1992, a cookbook in 2002 when cookbooks were starting to be hip, a flat-screen TV in 2004. Sometimes they zoom in on a temporary madness – the spiky acupressure mat in 2009, a juicer in 2013, VR goggles in 2016.<\/p>\n

In 2020, the camping stove got to embody the Swedish people’s new-found love for the outdoors, triggered by the covid quarantine; in 2021 an event ticket symbolized the end of the quarantine.<\/p>\n

Anyway, it’s a bit of fun, even though I’ve never let it affect my actual choices of Christmas gifts.<\/p>\n

Until this year. The Christmas gift of the year for 2022 is a home-knitted garment. Inflation is high, and so are electricity costs. There is a war going on, and people in bombed-out cities are without heating or electricity. The world feels like a chilly place. People want something to warm them, both in body and heart. And home-made crafts, which used to be something for grannies and oddball hippie activists, are suddenly trendy again.<\/p>\n

I have a cardigan to finish, and I really hadn’t planned to knit any more socks right now, but I couldn’t pass up this opportunity. So there will be some socks under the tree this year again. I did half a sock today, just in meetings or while reading – thicker yarn makes the work go fast – so I can easily get some done before Christmas.
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Every year since 1988, the Swedish Retail Institute has announced a “Christmas gift of the year” – a product that somehow embodies the zeitgeist for that year. Apparently it is based on “an independent analysis of consumption trends” but it’s probably just some group’s fingers in the air. Sometimes they capture the beginning of a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[790,791,767,12,18,784,768],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16474","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-celebrations","category-christmas","category-crafts-2","category-current_affairs","category-dailies","category-knitting","category-photography-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.toomik.net\/helen\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16474","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.toomik.net\/helen\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.toomik.net\/helen\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.toomik.net\/helen\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.toomik.net\/helen\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16474"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.toomik.net\/helen\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16474\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21467,"href":"https:\/\/www.toomik.net\/helen\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16474\/revisions\/21467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.toomik.net\/helen\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.toomik.net\/helen\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.toomik.net\/helen\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}