Posted by While I was in the clinic the other day, a patient of mine asked me if I was done with my Christmas shopping. I laughed. Done? I have not even begun!
With the holidays fast approaching, people are rushing, scrambling, and hustling to get their last-minute shopping to complete their long Christmas list. It’s no wonder we get so stressed. Are we sucking out the joy of the season? Why did Christmas become so commercialized and when did this holiday become synonymous with shopping anyway?
To the modern times, Christmas is not Christmas, unless we have completed our list (and checked it twice), and all the gifts are bought and wrapped, and all of those gifts are sitting pretty under the Christmas tree waiting for their eager recipients to open them with much elation (or much disappointment if it’s not what they want) on Christmas morning. Bah, humbug!
I know this season is said to be the season of giving and people often refer to the Biblical story of the wise men who came from the East to visit the baby Jesus, and they brought gifts for him. This is supposed to be our model for gift giving on this season. Really? Maybe we got it all wrong. Maybe we are missing the real essence of the season. Maybe we are taking too much emphasis on the gift-giving. Or maybe I’m just playing Scrooge.
Ten days before Christmas. I got time. Where’s my list? What list? Oh, I have not even drafted one yet.
But wait. Isn’t it 12/21/2012 arriving before 12/25/2012? Isn’t that the end of the Mayan calendar? Isn’t that the end of the world? What if the Mayans are right?
Then I don’t have to do my shopping after all!
Pinoy Transplant in Iowa 
It’s been two years now, PT, that my daughter and I bake our presents to close friends and family. It’s fun. I get to spend time in the kitchen for two nights with her. We catch up on things. She has her own apartment now. Hubby comes in and out to taste, weigh in, critique, hog some goodies. Then we wrap them in some serving bowls or trays I have found on sale earlier in the year and give them away!
That’s the way to do it. Home made and yummy presents. And at the same time bonding time with family. Merry Christmas to you and your family.
Me too, I wanna go shopping before Mayan’s Calendar End. So that will be in 20. haha!
Yes. Go ahead and go on a shopping spree! Using credit card would be better, so if the world does end, then you don’t even have to pay for it. 🙂
Nice one. haha but i dont have CC. magastos kase ako kaya ayaw ko magkaroon. haha, uutang na lang ako sa tindahan haha