Christmas smiles
This weekend represents the real beginning of the Christmas season for me. My wife’s family has arrived in Charlotte, the house is full, gifts are overflowing under the tree, and broccoli casserole is on the menu! There is one huge void. Beth’s dad, Big Al was not able to come this time, which stinks. There is only one Big Al, and he will be missed. But we press on, and we do have the surprise of Great Grandma Betty in the house. I love that Noah and Jakob have met two great grandmothers in the last month. Pretty special.
I love Christmas. I really do. But I also feel like each year it gets harder and harder for me to get into it. Holidays seem more stressful than fun. Why is that? Christmas shopping adds layers of stress rather than buckets of joy. These days the wish lists and the gift ideas via email and Facebook really are super convenient. It is no different than my parents asking me for some ideas when I was younger. And it makes it so much easier to shop. What should I get Bubba for Christmas? I need an idea. Easy. Pull up his list online, problem solved.
Yet for some reason it is so different to me. On one hand I completely concede that it makes sense to make a Christmas list so that all of your family can view it (Again, no different than writing something down or telling someone “hey, I really would like a new iMac.”). But while it definitely makes it easier, it also changes the game completely. What I love about gift-giving is the look on someone’s face when they get something they had no idea they were going to get. The joy of giving gifts comes full circle. The idea that sprung a few weeks prior, the excitement of going to find that gift and bring that idea to reality, taking it home and hiding it, and eagerly awaiting the moment when that person opens the gift. And when they finally open it! Oh, the look on their face, pure joy and surprise, which also brings pure joy to the gift-giver. That is fun. That is the gift part of Christmas that rocks.
I feel like these days the surprise element is almost obsolete. People are still joyful, still excited, but a lot of times they already know what they are getting. It seems more important to make sure everyone gets exactly what they want, even if they know they are getting it, than to put some thought into a gift and completely surprise someone. What this does is makes shopping more robotic, more like a grocery shopping than Christmas shopping.
When is the last time you spoke to someone who went gift-shopping, and was not stressed out about it? Is it your experience that Christmas shopping, while easier in the age of online shopping, seems to be not quite as fun as it was, say, 10 years ago? To be fair, increased population, car usage, living in a somewhat-large city adds to it not being as fun. No one wants to sit in the car for two hours before even arriving at your shopping destination. Traffic is awful. More on that in a second.
It is a catch 22, Michael Scott. Yes, so much easier, so much more convenient. I compare it in a way to communication these days. We are lazy. We want immediate satisfaction. Text instead of call. Email instead of write. Admittedly, I love the lazy methods more than most. I embrace technology. Typing is better than writing. My hand-writing is not readable anyway. And buying something without leaving my couch? Awesome. One trip to Carolina Place mall on a weekend leading up to Christmas can cause the holiest of saints to make Dr. Dre look like a Baby Einstein dvd. It is awful. There are few things I hate worse than sitting in traffic. Duke University basketball is one of those things. Mushrooms are another. But traffic is up there. Because of this, I love online shopping. I do most if not all of my shopping online. I never have to leave the house.
Dr. Dre does not seem so bad when compared to shoppers stuck in traffic due to Christmas shopping.
But it is the mindlessness of it all. The idea of really wanting to give someone something special, putting effort or thought into it has been replaced with checking a list and clicking a link off that list. I go to a wish list, click a link on said wish list, and bam, done! I did not even have to use a brain cell on that one. Come to think of it, I don’t even know who I just bought that for. It doesn’t matter though, I only have two more things to click and I am DONE!!
Hey, I love opening gifts, and even more so seeing others open gifts, seeing their faces brighten. But without question, my favorite thing about the holiday season is spending time with family. I love it. I love seeing the kids play together, hang out, all the smiles, the poker games, the games of Pitch (best card game in the cosmos), watching movies, etc. I even like the cold around Christmas time. Yup, I just said that. I do like the cold when it is appropriate. And it is certainly appropriate at Christmas!
So in these last few days leading up to Christmas, remember the important things. If you find yourself getting stressed about making sure everyone has everything they need, step back and remember family. Be thankful for health, for Jesus, for the precious hours you get to spend with family. Laugh a lot, smile a lot. My favorite ab exercise in the world happens when I hurt from laughter. It is one of the best pains in the world. I want that pain for Christmas. I am going to stop typing now so I can go put that on my Wish List.
Much love, folks.
Peace.
