(For the record, I have 7 family members' gifts done, wrapped and waiting to be shipped right now. Yes, I know, to many this is a sickness.)
I like to get done early not only because I love the process and enjoy finding gifts for people, but because I hate people (that aren't my people) and I refuse to set foot in a store that's not for groceries or toilet paper after Nov. 15. I have made only a few exceptions to help other folks do their shopping.
I don't throw old ladies to the ground to get into a store first to find a Wii. In short, I am a wuss. I like my capitalist Christmas, but I like to start dealing with it in August rather than the day after Thanksgiving.
I've made it my mission to take the crap and stress out of the holidays. Because, let's face it... any holiday that requires getting together in large groups is gonna cause some stress. But what MacTroll and I found out first by moving 1,000 miles away from family and then by moving back here and building a house and having a kid, is that we really, really enjoy the family Christmas morning in our own home. We have no big meal or loud boisterous party. We sit around in our pajamas playing with our kid and taking it easy ALL DAY.
And in essence, that's why we love Christmas. Sure, I enjoy giving the gifts more than the getting. But more importantly, I enjoy watching X-man see Christmas as a magical time when hope and kindness come together (hopefully) with some beautiful snow and some enjoyable music and a tree with nice lights while we sit in our home and enjoy our time with one another.
Really, holidays are just staging, right? But it's something different than a normal day. It has special foods and new toys and new clothes. It has new books waiting to be read and cuddly pajamas. It's an easier time.
But Santa, if you're up and cruisin' the blogs looking for some miracles to bestow, I've been very good this year. But my Christmas list is very selfish, so get to everyone else's important ones (curing cancer, ending poverty, world peace, etc.) first...
But my one Christmas (and Birthday) wish is this:
Please don't regift any gifts to my family that we might have given your family. Especially don't wrap them up and pretend like they're new. Instead, regift us stuff other people gave you -- stuff that doesn't look like it's been through high usage. But please don't do it with stuff I purchased myself. And it's not just me (the anti-Miss Manners) that says so... I mean, even the Motley Fools guys agree. They even made a do's and don'ts list for regifting!
If you want to be ecological and recycle old stuff your family loved, great, just e-mail me to see if I'd like them and then put them in a box and send them on any old day of the year. It's what I do. And if folks get the box and love them, great. If they don't, they can donate them.
But regifting a gift someone has purchased you... is like putting the coal into the stocking, taking it out to show me, mocking me and then pelting me in the head with it.
