Christmas Shopping

[paradox3]

The season will be here soon. Fa la la la la la la la la!

Do you look forward to Christmas shopping? Do you still do it these days? Is it fun for you?

Our family tradition has been getting more and more streamlined every year.

Funny thing is I have been following some of the home decor and decluttering gurus. On many of the discussion threads, people talk about the needless stuff they have accumulated as a result of shopping addictions.

I have never been a shopping addict. Most of my surplus items began their lives as Christmas or birthday gifts. Here's looking at you, boxes of figurines and tubs of excess Christmas decor.

Interested in your take on Christmas gift giving.

 

[Redbaron]

I used to love it. Back in the day my wife and I would take a few days around our wedding anniversary (November 1), go to a nearby-ish town, and start the process. That, along with the Sears catalog (a FEW years back....) and Amazon, we were usually done with our before Black Friday, when most people started theirs. It was fun.
Now I have far fewer to shop for, so it tends to be online shopping mostly. I do miss going to stores and malls, but don't miss the traffic and crowds.

 

[paradox3]

I guess I used to love it too. Back in the day.

I have some happy memories of playing Christmas music and wrapping up all the gifts at the dining room table.

 

[BetteTheRed]

It was more fun when there were small kids to wrap for, for sure. I loved making up Christmas stockings. I think that I will make that a fun job for the big guy this year. I think I will enjoy sending a few thoughtful cards.

Gifts? I will get something for my daughter, a few nice somethings for the big guy, put together a box for my son, a special e-mail with an attachment for son in Oz, a little something(s) for my baby sister, and that's about it. A $15 Tim's card for the mailperson, a couple of little things for girlfriends.

 

[paradox3]

Yes, stockings can be fun. In my family the stocking gifts were always wrapped in red tissue paper.

 

[Mrs.Anteater]

That reminds me that we have to start thinking about Secret Santa soon. Will publish it after Halween.

 

[Luce NDs]

That reminds me that we have to start thinking about Secret Santa soon. Will publish it after Halween.

Is Santa really secret or something that is only revealed to a rare few ... like an ether or ???? There has to be another word for such motes in the dark sky ... can a person mentally process such things if one is told to have no mind for such ide-A's? Thus the mindless sector ... anther clic!
Let us contemplate this as thought and reason are eliminated ...

 

[paradox3]

That reminds me that we have to start thinking about Secret Santa soon. Will publish it after Halween.

When my children were little they always started thinking about Christmas right after Halloween. Sometimes the very next day!

 

[Mendalla]

When my children were little they always started thinking about Christmas right after Halloween. Sometimes the very next day!

I wish the danged stores would wait until after Halloween.

 

[Luce NDs]

By all Saints ... can't they be a bit latent? Listen to the flaming's in the night ... Bonnie? An overheated as sit bees? Potentially irresolvable ... resembling something else again ... avarice will attempt to control that too ... just watch as the old decree stated: "observe do no harm!"

Thus light treks in the woods looking for ... God knows what ... probably shades under a illusionary tree ... Dan! can you see it?

 

[KayTheCurler]

Christmas gifting has been vetoed by our adult kids who claimed it was just too much. Strangely though, they still exchange gifts with their in-laws.

We haven't given any thought to the method of celebrating the day. Last year we stayed home with some sort of flu like ailment. Neither of us bothered to cook a special meal even.

Mostly we enjoyed making a happy day for our kids - and then grandkids. We will have our first ggrand by Christmas so we may feel called to spend time going to cuddle. Right now though this feels a bit daunting. A day of driving, an overcrowded house and nights at a hotel, followed by a day's drive home. We'll see!

 

[paradox3]

Christmas gifting has been vetoed by our adult kids who claimed it was just too much. Strangely though, they still exchange gifts with their in-laws.

It can feel more comfortable expressing such things to one's parents. As opposed to one's inlaws.

We haven't given any thought to the method of celebrating the day. Last year we stayed home with some sort of flu like ailment. Neither of us bothered to cook a special meal even.

Oh yes I remember this. Too bad

Mostly we enjoyed making a happy day for our kids - and then grandkids. We will have our first ggrand by Christmas so we may feel called to spend time going to cuddle. Right now though this feels a bit daunting. A day of driving, an overcrowded house and nights at a hotel, followed by a day's drive home. We'll see!

Traveling around the province for Christmas can be stressful. Really thankful those days are in the past for us.

 

[Luce NDs]

When such notorious turbulance occurs ... take cover ... get in the shade of a tree you don't understand ... thus occupation with the dark and mysterious!

 

[Mendalla]

Christmas gifting has been vetoed by our adult kids who claimed it was just too much.

Yeah, we mostly went that route, too. And now I have two Muslims in my immediate family, too (daughter-in-law is Muslim and son began practicing to support her) so Christmas has kind of shifted again, esp. if one of the Eids (festivals) or Ramadan falls during our holiday period. Haven't heard of any plans from extended family yet, either, so who knows what is happening.

 

[paradox3]

Christmas definitely changes as we move through the life cycle.

 

[Luce NDs]

Yeah, we mostly went that route, too. And now I have two Muslims in my immediate family, too (daughter-in-law is Muslim and son began practicing to support her) so Christmas has kind of shifted again, esp. if one of the Eids (festivals) or Ramadan falls during our holiday period. Haven't heard of any plans from extended family yet, either, so who knows what is happening.

"Who knows" is a question of certain criticality ... yet there are those that declare they know it all! Thus affiliated with God as Far-out ... farouche? Thus we are stretched, drawn and quartered ... a UK tradition originating from Saxon regions ... extended plasma may be Anglo ... their beefs be bloody ...

 

[paradox3]

Yeah, we mostly went that route, too. And now I have two Muslims in my immediate family, too (daughter-in-law is Muslim and son began practicing to support her)

I know someone who is in the same situation with his son. I don't know whether or not the two practicing Muslims attend the family Christmas gathering.

When he converted to Islam, the son said he would be as good a Muslim as he ever was a Christian. Kind of interesting.

 

[Mendalla]

I know someone who is in the same situation with his son. I don't know whether or not the two practicing Muslims attend the family Christmas gathering.

When he converted to Islam, the son said he would be as good a Muslim as he ever was a Christian. Kind of interesting.

My son is, or was, an atheist. Never liked church even when we took him. So I am not clear if he's a believing Muslim or just a practicing one. They are very much a works-based faith, too, so in some regards, it almost doesn't matter save that some of the "pillars" are daily prayer and such that pretty clearly assume a deity.

 

[KayTheCurler]

Christmas definitely changes as we move through the life cycle.

Definitely true. I decided to not stress about it overly much. For us it really is (and always has been) a calendar date. Neither of us could be called religious. None of our descendants are either.

Over the years I heard many stories about the horrors of Christmas with aging parent/s. One friend NEVER spent the holiday with her extended birth family. Her partner's mother insisted they spend the three days at HER house. This included weeping phone calls threatening to spend the holiday crying if her younger generations were not all in her house. Her kids always bent to her demands despite the unfairness to their spouses and in-laws.

 

[paradox3]

Balancing those two sets of family obligations always got tricky for us. Now that we are the senior generation, we try very hard not to pressure our kids.

We all live in close proximity to each other which makes planning easier.

I don't actually think being religious (or not) is a big factor here. So many of our Christmas traditions are culturally based.