Christmas Planning

If you’ve been in a retail store lately, you’ve seen Christmas decorations being put out. I’m just glad most stores waited until after August this year.

As most of you know I worked in the world’s largest retail store for 9 years. Over the course of those 9 years it seemed we set our Christmas stuff out earlier and earlier, to the point that by the third week of August we were replacing gardening gear with ornaments and lights, practically bypassing the Back-To-School push (which started in May, a full month before school was even out that year), Halloween and Thanksgiving. Oh, those other big retail events were still out, but all in an area where customers weren’t expecting. Personally, I feel that seasonal items should be in the seasonal section of a store, not Stationary. But what do I know, after all, they let me go and are now barely staying afloat after some overambitious push to make more money that ended up failing and causing a stir even among their loyal customer base.

But, this isn’t a rant about retail, just a simple reminder that Christmas is about two months away, and the perfect time to start your planning for shopping, making projects and decorating. For years I’ve made a gift giving list for our friends and family, listing every single person in our life, and filling out what we would be getting them. A majority of them would just get cards, so please don’t think I’d actually buy or make everyone a present, because that is just crazy! Of course, those cards were all handmade, so I suppose in a way… From the remainder, I’d decide what I was either going to make or buy. Having this list done a couple months ahead allowed plenty of time to make projects, whether they be scrapbooks, hand painted ornaments, puppets or quilts. I’d usually start my gift shopping after Thanksgiving, that way I could wrap them right away and put them under the Christmas tree.

The best part about having a list is crossing stuff off of it. I especially enjoyed the thrill of crossing off nearly 90% of my list after completing and mailing Christmas cards. I don’t know why, but something about shrinking a large list down by that much all at once gives me a boost to finish the rest of the list. Now, don’t get me wrong, I don’t always do or get everything on the list, but having it as a guide sure helps. I make sure that everybody gets a card, and make extras just in case I forget anybody, which isn’t an unlikely scenario given the vast amount of people in my family alone. That way if I don’t get them a present, they at least got something from us.

The worst part about this is that I haven’t made a list in three years. Honestly it has been nice not having the added stress, but at the same time I don’t have an excuse not to make Christmas cards at the very least to send out. I know one reason is finances have been rather tight, but the biggest reason is simply not feeling the Christmas Spirit. Neither my partner or I have been in any mood to celebrate Christmas, or even Halloween or Thanksgiving for that matter, and this year both of us seem to be looking forward to these events again. I know I’ve been slacking on putting out the Halloween decorations and should probably get to those today, and I know we won’t be able to dress in the costumes we wanted to make, and I know that money is tighter this year more than ever, but we are both looking forward to the 2010 holiday season. I better go start making that Christmas List now.