What I Won't Do For Love, I Do For Christmas

Category: Seasons

At home, the gifts are finally starting to bloom around the tree, late Christmas shoppers that we are. It was initiated by my little girl who finished off her shopping yesterday, and her firm and systematic way of the gifting process, from listing, to shopping, to wrapping and a well-planned distribution, is something I need to learn myself.

I'm starting my own shopping on Thursday and onwards, with fingers crossed and a bottle of Advil handy, already imagining the long lines at the cashier counters and the mall parking hell. Aargh! Of course I'm ever thankful for the edible gift options that require just a phone-call and a pick-up, that considerably take a load off any Christmas shopper's worries.

Not that I'm whining completely. While mine is a more common observation, other people would probably give an arm and a leg to be able to do what normal people do. Angelina Jolie, for instance, couldn't even bring her children to Disneyland, which is a huge pity because it is the happiest place on earth, and considering how you sense that she really wants to keep as simple and down-to-earth (which, strangely, she really is) as humanly possible.

I guess for her like, and all other anti-mall-shopping extremists, the buying is confined to catalogue orders by phone, or the internet, which takes the joy out of gift-wrapping. Worse, it can be assigned to other people who get hired to shop, who are lucky to get paid for something they really love to do, although I wouldn't wish that fate upon myself. Like I've said again and again, I DO NOT enjoy shopping, and hate the smell of mall parking lots. But then, these aren't ordinary days, but the days I've really looked forward to all year round. So I guess the shopping anxiety, among other things and smells, is part of what makes up Christmas, as we know it.