‘Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse. That’s because everybody else was out for late night Christmas Eve shopping!
Getting ready for Christmas can be a busy time: preparing for the meals, preparing for a family holiday (the running around alone is enough to make you need one!), and of course last minute gift shopping for family and friends. No wonder 2,000 years ago at the first Christmas the angels declared “Peace on Earth”, they knew how badly we’d need it!
I have tried a couple of strategies over the years to be more organised for Christmas. One attempt a few years back was to be ultra organised and start my Christmas shopping six months earlier. I found something for everybody, wrapped everything, and stored it all in the shed ready for the end of the year. Of course, every Christmas some relative turns up you weren’t expecting, so I even bought an extra box of chocolates just in case of such an emergency. Two days before Christmas, however, I heard that a great aunt was coming. She’s allergic to nuts. The chocolate-coated hazelnut trifles I’d bought (and wrapped and stored!) were not, therefore, an adequate emergency gift, and I found myself once more at the mall again fighting off every other last-minute Christmas shopper. After returning home triumphant with some nut-free chocolate I decided to also take the rest of the presents out of storage to put under the tree. That’s right, the presents that I’d proudly organised months earlier. The presents that I had safely stored in the shed. The very same presents that were now mostly nibbled away by some form of rodent, and one of which had obviously been sitting under a water leak all winter. Despite all my best efforts Christmas Eve found me back frantically shopping once again.
The second approach I tried was to spread the stress over a shorter period of time while still attempting to avoid the chaotic last minute rush. I calculated that I needed about 17 hours of shopping and preparation time before the big day. For the month before Christmas, then, I scheduled 4 and a quarter hours for “Christmas preparation” every week. I figured this way the month was still busy, but the stress was at least spread out. The down side of this approach is that after a month of Christmas stress I was well and truly “over it”, and decided to spend Christmas Day sitting on a beach fishing instead.
So, last minute shopping it is. The night before Christmas is here, and I’m off! Lots to do, very little time to do it, but at least in battling some grandma for the last “Ben 10” figurine for my nephew I’m going to enjoy the adrenaline rush of 6 months worth of rushing getting jammed into 3 hours of action packed extreme shopping! I don’t even know who Ben 10 is, but it should be fun!
Hoping you and your family have a blessed Christmas, and that in the midst of the fun you also get time to reflect on the true meaning of this wonderful celebration.