Last year I wanted to bring some sort of holiday gift to the pediatric GI department where Edward gets his Remicade infusions. We are there for hours and hours each time, and it used to be every 7 weeks but now it’s every 5 weeks which is basically once a month, and it’s been years now so we’ve gotten to feel warmly about everyone there.
But I couldn’t decide what to bring. The nurses are always talking (amongst themselves, I mean, not to us, but the nurse’s station is right outside the door so we can hear them) about how they have to eat better and exercise more, and also I imagine that MOST people who bring holiday gifts would bring treats? Perhaps I am wrong. But I know Paul’s office is always just FULL of treats in December. (But probably not this year, with the pandemic.) I would love to bring treats if they’d love to have treats, but I don’t want to BURDEN them with treats. And in a pandemic there is the additional issue of whether they’d feel comfortable with food brought in, even though (1) the overwhelming evidence seems to be that food does not pose a threat, and (2) I’d be bringing something made by someone else—like treats from a bakery or grocery store.
Anyway, last year I got overwhelmed and did nothing, and felt at peace with that decision until AFTER our December appointment, when I wished I’d powered through it and done something, ANYTHING. Holiday tasks feel overwhelming beforehand and wonderful afterhand, in my experience: like, even when it’s NOT in a pandemic I always dither and fret about the mail carrier, and I always feel SO HAPPY AND GLAD after I’ve put the gift card in the mail box. So I made a note for this year to DO SOMETHING FOR THE PEDIATRIC GI DEPARTMENT.
Here are the things I’ve considered:
1. Grocery store fruit tray. For $20-25, I can get a nice big tray of assorted fruit, which should feel somewhat treat-like while still fitting into most people’s eating plans, and without adding to the possible overload of cookies/bars/etc.; I could add a container of caramel dip and a container of chocolate dip, or anything else I see sold by the fruit trays, to increase the treatness for anyone who would LIKE to increase the treatness. Downside: fruit this time of year may not be terrific and it doesn’t last long; also, I’d have to go to the grocery store to get it (I’m okay with that, but in a pandemic anything “going inside a store” has to count as a downside).
2. An order from O&H Danish Bakery. A dear friend sent me two of their Kringles, and they were SO DELICIOUS AND FUN. They’re big oval ring-shaped danish, and you cut off pieces and eat them. And they freeze gorgeously: I cut a bunch of pieces and put them in baggies in the freezer before my children could locust everything up, and I took out a piece every afternoon to have with my coffee, and it was glorious. Anyway, I could send the department a few Kringles, or there are also other holiday packages involving, say, two Kringles and two coffee cakes, things like that. Downsides: could possibly be adding to burden of too many sweets/treats; also, rather expensive. Upside: they’d be shipped, so they’d arrive as a surprise and I wouldn’t have to be there! (I don’t like the part where I’m bringing in things and people might feel they have to make a big deal about it, and in the case of our Remicade appointments different people keep coming into the room so maybe they’d ALL say something, and it’s so agonizing.)
3. An order from See’s Candies. This is another of my own favorite special treats, and I feel like I could put together a nice selection of chocolates and candies. Downsides: again, expensive and adds to potential overburden of sweets. Upside: again, SHIPPED, so I don’t have to be there; also, they keep for a fairly long time, so they wouldn’t have to be eaten at the same time as any other possible resident treats.
4. A bunch of assorted things that I can get with Drive-Up at Target: basically the pandemic care package concept. Like, what about some of those four-packs of bottles/cans of Starbucks coffee? And a big parcel of those snack-size chip bags! And some packs of festive Milano and/or Pepperidge Farm cookies! And some hand lotion! And so on. Upside: this would be super fun for me, and everything would KEEP really well in case they didn’t want it now. Downside: heavy/bulky to lug through the hospital; also, I was estimating the cost and it would be comparable to the Kringles/See’s ideas, but for something that doesn’t seem like it has the same impact.
Do you have other ideas? And I hope we can all remember that, as when discussing teacher gifts, no one likes to hear their careful and lovingly-intended ideas called “crap” or “junk” or “a waste” or whatever, and that too much of that kind of talk makes people just give up and do nothing instead, and with bad unfestive feeling about it too. And also, we should all keep in mind that there is no single Right Answer that meets every department everywhere: for example, some departments get too many sweets and feel burdened, while others hardly get any and would greatly enjoy getting more. So if for example you are or know a nurse, perhaps you could list things your/their department would love to receive, rather than dishearteningly listing all the stuff that gets thrown in the trash immediately. And if you have brought gifts to medical staff in the past, I hope you will feel free to say what you decided on, without this cautionary paragraph making you feel self-conscious that other people will criticize it.
