So how many of you are going to do your patriotic duty and go shopping on Friday?How many of you think it's really, really stupid to be herded like cattle and roped into this annual "Black Friday" shopping frenzy?
How many of you find a surreal contradiction between being told to save your money because the sky is falling at the same time you're being told that the only way to stave off certain disaster is to spend your money?
Here's my quandary: I love to give presents, but I hate to shop. For me, the answer is the virtual shopping cart, which I can fill up to my heart's content, park on whatever Web site, and either go back and roll it through the check-out line or, conversely, leave it there in cyberspace indefinitely.
One thing I know for sure: The thought of being mobbed at any store and waiting in line forever to spend my money is worse than having my eyes poked out with hot sticks. There's not one thing I want badly enough to go through that kind of torture.
And here's another thing I'm old enough to know for sure: In the last 30 years, shopping has become a hobby, a sport, not something we do in the tradition of hunting and gathering. It's something we do to have something to do.
So I'm already sick of hearing about the poor retailers and how they are suffering and will suffer more if we don't show up with our credit cards. Here's my harsh opinion. I don't care one whit about the retail market. All I can remember is that Christmas was a lot more fun when we made things ourselves and traded tokens of our affection rather than unloading a dumpster's worth of stuff on everyone we love. It just was.
So here's what my shopping cart is going to look like on Friday. If you look real close, you'll see the real spirit of Christmas under those dry leaves.
This does not mean that nobody will receive a gift from me at Christmas, but it does mean that sometimes the gifts that mean the most aren't found in any shopping cart at all. They just magically appear under our trees come Christmas morning.
6 comments:
Yep. I agree. My idea of hell is to go shopping the day after Thanksgiving. Or actually, do any Christmas shopping.
But here's the thing- I need a new stove (I think) and I am told that on black Friday, the appliances are cut mightily in price.
What should I do?
Oh wait. I know. Send my husband. No, that won't work. He has no idea what I need in a stove.
There's no Black Friday in Mexico because there's no Thanksgiving here! Whew! And Nannygoat, I'm with you as you know. I hate shopping and have NEVER gone shopping on Black Friday! Yipes. Too scary!
Ms. Moon, the appliance departments are probably not going to be mobbed like other departments...but what do I know??
Just an update on Thanksgiving down here in the tropics. I gave our turkey to Sergio to take home to his houseful of 10 people. It was just insane to cook that big bird for TWO of us! (Besides, Nan, we know the turkey was the national bird, cooked by mistake! ;))
We MIGHT eat a turkey dinner at the Hyatt buffet..but who knows. Maybe we'll just have tamales. I'm going to try to bake a pumpkin pie in my precious relic of a stove, but with unreliable temperature control, I don't have hopes that it will turn out well.
Have a pie and some faux turkey (chicken) and a yam and call it Thanksgiving. Hurray for giving away the big bird. You would have been so sick of turkey and had turkey guilt.
Nannygoat, if you had any idea how many days a week we eat faux turkey you would have suggested tofu. ;) My pumpkin pie is in the oven although I have mo idea what the temperature is. That will be tomorrow's dinner. ;)
Well, it works for me. Happy Thanksgiving to my loiesister in the Yucatan. :)
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