"Goomba" wrote

>> Common if newlyweds. Especially common in Hawaii. They do a money tree
>> in Hawaii as well and you clip money (or checks) to it with paperclips.
>
> Thats about as sad and tacky as "Dollar Dances" at weddings. If someone
> wants to gift people with money at a celebration, they are welcome to do
> it discretely. Slip me an envelope, and lets both get on with the party!

Naw, not tacky at all! You'd have to see it to understand. 'Dollar dances'
are tacky. Dollar trees are a normal thing there in Hawaii and everyone
understands what's up. Saw one couple get almost 30,000$ (very big wedding
/ housewarming with over 1,000 guests I was told at the end). It probably
cost them 10,000$ to hold the party (Luau with 6 roast pit pigs etc).

We werent 'family' but we were more than 'casual friends'. Don and I did 12
hours of hard labor running the bar (for free of course) and gave a small
gift plus a gift card.

Grin, to clarify, Don and I were both fairly junior Navy and as a sideline,
we tended bar for parties like this for 10$ an hour. These were friends so
we worked for free as part of our gift. We didnt lose out though as we made
several contacts and got work from folks who discretely through our friend
got ahold of us later.

> I like the old southern custom we learned about in North Carolina, where
> neighbors hold a "pounding" when people move into new homes. Everyone
> brings a "pound" of something (tea, coffee, flour, sugar...) to stock the
> pantry.

In Japan it's the reverse. New folks move in, they come by to visit the
existing folks and give small household gifts to them!