There! I have mailed a Christmas box to Paul’s sister, and that is the task that every year makes it feel like Now It Is Christmas. I like to mail it Quite Late, because she has been known to just go ahead and open everything the day it arrives, which I find upsetting even though it affects me not one tiny smidge.
I have also done MOST of my Christmas cards. The ones that are left are mostly the ones where I want to write something (as opposed to just signing our names), and since those were holding up the line I let all the just-signing ones cut ahead.
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This year I’m stopping blog-related holiday cards. If you are thinking, “But wait! I’M blog-related! Why did _I_ never get a card from Swistle??,” it’s something I started doing early on in blogging, and then a few years ago I stopped giving out my address to anyone new because Actually Never Mind That’s a Boring Story. And now I am discontinuing the cards altogether, even to the original list. I wouldn’t even mention it (it’s a little awkward of me to even bring it up), except that when I’m exchanging cards with someone and then they stop, I worry that It’s Me, even if I have no reason at all to think it’s me. And then I’m quite relieved if I hear that actually they didn’t do any cards that year, or whatever. …Although I suppose hearing “Actually, I eliminated the whole group you’re a part of” is not quite the same level of relief. But still, it’s a step up from, “Actually, it’s you. I don’t like you anymore. Also, I’m secretly mad at you for something you’d never guess.”
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Every year it feels Too Early to prepare for Christmas until the very moment it feels Too Late. And every year I have Too Few gifts for the kids until suddenly I have Too Many.
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Henry was the most difficult one to buy for this year, which he shouldn’t have been because he’s the youngest and usually I find the older kids more difficult. But he just WAS. He didn’t really have any good ideas (except for “a coupon to go out for pizza with Mommy,” which, OKAY!), and some of the stuff he wanted seemed like bad ideas. For example, he wanted a $50 castle, but I am Quite Sure he will not play with it, considering we JUST Freecycled his old castle. Happily, my mom found a good Fisher-Price castle at Goodwill for $3.99, and then pressured me to consider buying it (I had a “used toys that have to be inspected for broken/missing parts” hurdle AND a “but I’d decided not to get a castle” hurdle, both of which needed to be hurdled), and then volunteered to clean it, so Henry is getting a castle.
This year Husband and I got a new television as our joint major gift but I had bought him a beard trimmer on Black Friday as his minor present, just 12 hours before he bought himself a (nicer) beard trimmer on Cyber Monday. So I returned the beard trimmer and bought him a bathrobe, and Saturday when he was doing his shopping he found EXACTLY the robe he wanted and bought it, so Land’s End is getting the one I bought back. I’ve now purchased the third and final option, and if this one does not work out, he can just watch my half of the television. Yes. Christmas needs to be here now.
LOVED this: He can just watch my half of the television. LOVED!
This made me laugh out loud (literally). Thanks!
In my house, people are not allowed to buy things for themselves past December 1. They are practically not allowed to buy themselves SNACKS, let alone bathrobes. Big trouble would ensue!
I need to adopt that rule, Jenny! It’s sort-of unspoken, but it needs SPEAKING. and WRITING DOWN.
Yes! Growing up we had a no-buy rule instituted around mid-November. I think I will add that to our household rules.
Oooh, great idea.
Like the idea, but at this point (we’re in our 50s and have been married 34 years) I don’t think I can stop him from buying something if he wants (or thinks he needs) it. Fortunately he’s an uber-cheapskate, so I don’t have to worry about him going overboard.
Also: I can totally relate to this:
Every year it feels Too Early to prepare for Christmas until the very moment it feels Too Late.
Yup. So true.
It’s hard to believe little children can be hard to buy for but I have one on my list as well. This post motivated me to go deal with that today. Glad the castle worked out at $4 and not $50. (!!!)
I still sent you a card, even though I’m in the ‘blogger card’ category. Hopefully RECEIVING cards from people to whom you did not SEND cards is not a thing that causes you undue stress/angst (it DOES for me, so). I’m just warning you that I am not offended about the uneven exchange situation, not in the least, so I ALSO if the receiving is a part of it, well. There you go. I am unclear on where I was going with this.
No pressure, but I hope the post with information about what all the children are recieving is forthcoming, even if not until after the holiday. I can’t wait! I always find your gift posts fascinating.
I was thinking the same thing as Jenny Grace (and also hoping that I was not somehow part of the story behind why you’re stopping the bloggy cards, like I was somehow super creepy toward you without realizing it) — and my cards are already sent so I can’t, like, un-send it having just learned this information so OMG I am sure it is ALL FINE, right? (Yes, my anxiety is such that even when you pre-emptively assuage worries, I STILL find something to worry about. Gah.)
Ha ha, are you saying you are STILL wondering if It’s You even after the awkward paragraph designed to prevent people from feeling that way, and that in fact that paragraph made it WORSE? YOU AND I ARE LIKE TWINS.
Yes, exactly! Hahaha! Our brain chemistry should be submitted to science for careful study.
I actually LIKE it when people get my box of presents early and open them all! LOL That way they aren’t lost in the fray on Christmas morning, you know? My sister is the opposite and never lets her kids open the ones they get early.
“Every year it feels Too Early to prepare for Christmas until the very moment it feels Too Late. And every year I have Too Few gifts for the kids until suddenly I have Too Many.” No other description has ever captured my Christmas issues as well as this one.
I also had the biggest struggle buying for Youngest who is 4. She doesn’t really want anything in particular except a lovely wooden dollhouse and dolls she saw in a catalog my MIL gave her that are $300 together (um no). It’s been hard to hit the sweet spot between too expensive and not enough.
I took for granted when Oldest was 4 that he loved trains and would be happy with all gifts Thomas related. Christmas and birthdays were a snap. On the other hand, having a older child has given me perspective in that I know darned well he doesn’t remember any specific Christmas gift from when he was 4 so I don’t think my Christmas gift waffling is going to scar Youngest for life ;-)
Each year I send one box of gifts to my husband’s brother’s kids, and I always send it to arrive in early December so that the gifts can be unwrapped and used/enjoyed/played with in anticipation of Christmas. Usually the items are advent-related, so really they MUST be opened in early December. And I write on the box and on the enclosed note “OPEN NOW… DO NOT WAIT” and year after year the parents hide the box until Christmas eve. Sigh. I can’t win. Ever.
Oh, the too early.. whoops, too late thing. I always wait until the last day or so before Christmas to wrap presents, thinking that I’ll enjoy doing such a festive activity at the peak of Christmas anticipation, and then it ends up being just one more thing in the last-minute rush.
Where oh where do people HIDE presents? This is my struggle. WIth my oldest being 3, this is the first time we’ve really had to work at hiding stuff, and I don’t have a large space for hiding (no basement, sob.). So I am squirreling things away in various places and I keep forgetting both what I have bought and what I have hidden. Hello, sleep deprivation! I thought I was doing so well buying things ahead of time. Turns out, that is just more time to forget.
On the up side, ALL of us will be surprised by the presents this year! And possibly throughout the year as I find the hiding spots.
Ha! I just unearthed all of the teacher gifts I have been picking up since June, and unless I have six kids I have forgotten about (in addition to the three I just sent to school), I have about 10 too many “small gifts.” Truthfully, I can’t even remember buying some of them. Sigh… I need a tutorial on buying gifts early to minimize holiday budget stress because I would like to pick things up throughout the year when they are on sale. Unfortunately, I get caught up in the web of my own perceived cleverness here at the very end.
“Unfortunately, I get caught up in the web of my own perceived cleverness here at the very end.” That is exactly how I am feeling!!!
My parents used to lock all of our presents in the trunk of my dad’s car. We never, ever rode in it and they didn’t leave keys to it lying around.
Trunk of car–also brilliant!
In years past I have hidden gifts in the trunk of my car. When the gifts got larger, I stashed them at work and wrapped them there too (yay!) until the year we had a fire scare and I had to enlist coworkers to drag out my kids’ Christmas.
My mom has put all of the presents in the spare room of our house and elaborately taped the door shut. Basically, if we tamper with it she’ll know and there is a serious warrant out for anyone who dares touch her security system. So far it’s working quite well. (And yes, I am an adult and no, apparently my mom does not trust me or the rest of my family.)
I struggle with gifts for my kids for exactly this reason. WHY does it feel like Too Few until suddenly it is Too Many? I don’t understand, and yet it happens every year. I also have a tendency to lose track of what I’ve purchased, so this is probably a lot of the issue.
I wish I could just enjoy the holidays without any of this ridiculous stress but it never seems to happen that way. I’ve decided that KIDS are the only ones who get to truly enjoy the holiday season and they don’t realize that because they take it for granted (just like everything else in their lives). Sigh.
I think there needs to be a “rent a gift” type system for Christmas presents. That way the children get the excitement of opening and playing with their new things that day or over Christmas break… and then when they go back to school the gifts go back to the rental place. It would solve so many Christmas dilemmas.
I couldn’t comprehend anything after reading ” a coupon to go out to pizza with mommy.” That is just the sweetest. I want to buy him a castle now.
Oh yes, the “this pile looks too small and sad” until suddenly, mid wrapping, “holy crap this is a ridiculous number of gifts!” Every year I aim to go simple- three carefully thought out gifts apiece, with quiet meaningful appreciation of them while gathered around the tree! But then each year I cannot resist the immediate gratification of watching children in a frenzy of greedy glee ripping open piles of silly cheapo presents I have spotted and known they would love, if only for a few days. I am like a little kid in that way.