Keep Your Cool

Well, the holiday shopping is in full swing, the lights are going up on the houses around town and the shopping centers have degenerated into temporary holding tanks for those who are suffering with a dreadful, uncontrollable illness known as "Shop-a-holic syndrome" This is a disease of the body mind and holiday spirit. The first symptoms toy with your mind and can seem harmless enough, for example: You notice that Mrs. Jones has just brought home a Gucci bag, the same model that was displayed in the store window. You politely look away but before you can get a handle on your raging jealousy, the "illness" rears its ugly head, you smile, turn casually around and say, "Oh, Ms. Jones, Where did you find that quaint, Gucci knock-off? I saw one just like it in So-Ho for $15. You are so good to help the poor street vendors out like that." Then symptoms of the body take over as you wave casually goodbye, get into your car and then dangerously, race to the store only to discover that every Gucci Purse in the store has at least 2 women fighting over it. But today, you must get a purse, and, it has to be to-die-for - the brawl kills any spirit you had left for the season.

Well, maybe it's because I live in the country, or perhaps I just don't like crowds, I find it much less stressful to shop online. The major people in my family have on-line wish lists. That makes shopping a breeze. Out of 500 items I pick a few and thy are always delighted on Christmas morning.

Shopping on-line I avoid obsessed, neurotic people who insist that my parking space was really meant for them. Shopping on-line, I end up with no car repair bills, no lawyers and no headache; works for me.

Of course there is something nostalgic about taking the family to the mall and letting everyone spread out so that they can shop in secrecy. It is like a game of Clue as everyone acts like they want to avoid the rest of the family, but secretly they spy on each other hoping to get a glance of their future gift. If you go early, on a Tuesday Morning, you can get your shopping done in less time than it will take the thieves in your neighborhood to raid your home and steal all the presents you bought yesterday. But if you take time out to have lunch, take the kids to the arcade and stand in line to see Santa, you might as well give in to the fact that it is going to be a very long and exhausting day.

Some of my kids have made homemade gifts for each of us for Christmas and we cherish those things they put so much thought and effort into. One year they recorded classical hymns with both of them singing (they are professional singers) and that is something we will love always. One year my son wrote a little book, a story of the true meaning of Christmas, I show it proudly in my library. A pair of socks, another trinket for my shelves would be nice, but it is the love and attention that the personal gifts carry with them that I cherish.

So I'm not telling you to stop shopping and start crafting. I just thought that if you could give a little thought to the quality of the experiences you want to create for your holiday season, and then organize activities and duties in a way that will help your holiday dreams to come true, and then you just might get your wish. If you are happy the whole family will be happier. And that isn’t such a bad thing.