Shopping Reminder Day
Oh the joys of Christmas shopping. The crowds, the hustle and bustle, the wandering from shop to shop without a clue what to buy and then finally, the grabbing of stuff in a frenzy of panic buying. How very apt that today is Shopping Reminder Day because as yet I haven’t bought a single thing. Of course it doesn’t help that my wife’s birthday is just twelve days before Christmas, so I have double whammy panic.
Shopping Reminder Day, not that any of us need reminding with just one month left until Christmas and so much left to do, so many presents to buy. This day is a stark reminder of all the shopping I haven’t done, and how little time I have to do it. Less of a celebration, more of a horrifying epiphany, a wake up call to do what I always promise myself I will do and shop early.
Of course with just a month left I’ve failed again, but this year we are definitely not going to buy too many gifts and spend all of Christmas morning unwrapping presents we don’t need/want/like. This year I’d like to spend half an hour present opening and then hit the fizz. But then we say that every year.
Of course Christmas never quite works out the way you expect. Something usually comes along to blot the snow white landscape, a culinary malfunction, a forgotten important something or other, a raging madman in your kitchen. Well at least that last one is pretty unlikely this year and I’m determined not to let anything else get to me. Let’s face it; although it’s an important day, it isn’t important at all. It’s just a day like any other and it’s us that gives it some deeper significance based around whatever you think it should be.
Of course this doesn’t mean I don’t want a great day and a very merry Christmas; I do. But if it isn’t quite as great as my unrealistic expectations expect then so be it. I’m sure I can deal with it just as long as I get that gift buying sorted out.
I guess it’s time to start shopping.
Tim Preston on FB
ReplyDeleteChristmas is so wrong in so many different ways and you've touched on them here. Take the wanting it to be a good day. For more than a month before the "the day" our worry and troubles are focused on the day which is not the present, so you are ruining all the days up till the 25th for the sake of a few hours on the 25th - It's a tragic waste of life. The fact that it is bult around capitalist consumerism and is pretty much at odds with what this guy Jesus said - you have made my father's temple a den of thieves - that sort of stuff (which is good stuff) is also absolutely tragic. Last year I treated Christmas with the contempt it deserves and did just enough to get by. I much more enjoyed celebrating the solstice with the oak tree god by having candles round the fireplace, a bottle of wine and reading some Anglo-Saxon poetry - you only enter the kingdom of heaven by being at peace with yourself - these so called John Lewis and Sainsbury heathens have turned it into a time of torture and pain
Andrew Height
DeleteAnd þy ylcan dæge ealra we healdað
sancta symbel þara þe sið oððe ær
worhtan in worulde willan drihtnes.
Syþþan wintres dæg wide gangeð
on syx nihtum, sigelbeortne genimð
hærfest mid herige hrimes and snawes,
forste gefeterad, be frean hæse,
þæt us wunian ne moton wangas grene,
foldan frætuwe.
And on the same day [November 1] we keep
the feast of All Saints, of those who recently or long ago
worked in the world the will of the Lord.
After that comes Winter’s Day, far and wide,
after six nights, and seizes sun-bright autumn
with its army of ice and snow,
fettered with frost by the Lord's command,
so that the green fields may no longer stay with us,
the ornaments of the earth.
Tim Preston
DeleteOoh I like that even though it's got bits of Christianity in it
Andrew Height
DeleteThe Christianity is probably inserted later replacing a more pagan deity.
Fraser Stewart on FB
ReplyDeleteIs it only a month away?
Andrew Height
DeleteAfraid so Fraser
Lorna Gleadell on FB
ReplyDeleteCancelled in our house
Andrew Height
DeleteAt the stroke of twelve you will be visited by three spirits...
Lorna Gleadell
DeleteWell let's hope it's single vodka, double vodka and triple vodka.......................
Tim Preston on FB
ReplyDeletewhat's a month away?
Tim Preston
DeleteIt's not the anniversary of Agincourt is it? I keep missing it