Tuesday 04 December 2001

Christmas shopping v. 2001

I hate Christmas shopping. Hate it with a full-blooded, baying hate. It has something to do with the crowds, a lot to do with blatant consumerism and greed, and probably a lot to do with the fact that I hate Christmas anyway.

My Christmas-hate goes back a long way; I was a scarily cynical (or analytical?) child and soon sussed out the major plot discrepancies and various stomach-churning dogmas and hypocrisies of the Christian (Roman Catholic) faith. Then, I read about paganism and how way back in the 12^th Century or so (I’m being deliberately vague here; don’t wanna lecture) the Catholic Church basically hijacked the winter solstice festival for their own, and called it Christmas and claimed that’s when Christ was born. Uh huh.

Then, there was the family “stuff” that invariably went with Christmas. Huge endlessly long meals of hot turkey in 38oC heat with relatives who didn’t like the other lot of relatives, and different tribes of cousins who my brothers and I  loathed with fiery passion, and all that. THEN as I got older, into my teens then twenties, there were invariably the personal questions – some subtly put, some as sensitive as a petrol bomb – as to what I was doing with my life, where was I going, and did I have a boyfriend yet? Yecchh. Are you getting a picture of why I have bad associations with Christmas yet?

Sure I liked the presents; I’m a normal person, I love the whole giving and receiving thing, particularly when there is thought and care and love involved. To me, that’s really the point of Christmas.

So this year, my first Northern Hemispherical (?) Christmas, I resolved that I would not look on it as “Christmas” per se, but as a festival, maybe even The Festival of Light of pagan days, and focus on new beginnings and spending time with Sam, my new division of family, and the giving and receiving.

So far so good. But I could not, would not, face the crowds, and the sight of said greed and consumerism and a basically meaningless religious festival (to a helluva lot of the world’s population, and perhaps somewhat moot given the problems religion has caused in this part of the world) bearing more resemblance to a feeding frenzy. Thus I found myself in a quandary … until I beat my head against my beloved and long-suffering laptop and got stuck into some serious online shopping.

ThinkGeek.com, Figleaves.com, dab.com, Argos.co.uk, Amazon.co.uk, blackstar.co.uk all came in for a bit of a beating. But oh, the luxury! Being able to browse in blissful peace (or do I mean peaceful bliss?) with nothing but my trusty credit card and list of who to buy for (with a strict budget limit, natch).

The deliveries are coming in and I’m happy. A couple of small trips into town will still be necessary, but the Big Bunfight has been avoided. Wheeee!

Merry Festival of Light, my Dell Latitude 600, my love.

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