Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, October 23, 1995 TAG: 9510240005
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MONTY S. LEITCH
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
She: Isn't this a beautiful day? It's the kind of weather than makes me think I ought to start my Christmas shopping.
Me: Your Christmas shopping?
(I have to tell you - the sky was blue, the air was clear, the sun rained down its golden light in brilliant sheets. It was the perfect fall day. Nothing about it made me think of Dec. 25.)
She: Well, it's just that I think I should, you know. Start early. Spread those charges on the credit cards over several months.
Me: But when you do that, where do you put all the things you've bought? It's nearly eight weeks of storage we're talking about.
She: That's a problem, for sure.
Then she told me about the year that, on Christmas Eve, in the midst of a blizzard, she couldn't find the only two gifts her daughter had requested. She knew she'd bought them, and she looked everywhere. But they were nowhere.
And so, Santa braved the blizzard to get to the stores before they closed, returning just in the Nick of time, requested gifts in hand.
On Christmas morning, the daughter beamed. She'd received two of everything! For those ``lost'' presents had been safely wrapped and under the tree all the time.
Me: ``Hide in plain sight,'' as they say. What a novel idea.
She: ... (Well, this is a family newspaper.)
I know people who finish up their Christmas shopping for next year at the after-Christmas sales of this year. I know people who think they've failed a job requirement if they're still buying Christmas presents after July 4.
What an obligation! What a responsibility! How can you think about the person for whom the gift is bought if you've focused all your energy on meeting some terrible goal?
On the other hand ...
I do remember more than one desperate, last-minute search I've made for something - anything! - that would allow me to mark those last few names off my list.
Talk about obligation! Attempted late-December dashes through stores packed with angry, impatient mobs. Skirmishes in parking lots. The midnight realization that there's not another scrap of wrapping paper in the house; that you've even used up all the comic papers you can find. And ribbon? Forget ribbon. Forget scotch tape.
On the other hand ...
If I were to start shopping now, where would I put all those gifts? I barely have room in my closets for our extra sheets and towels. How could I squeeze in gifts?
And then, there are the mice. Wouldn't they just love to get their greedy little jaws around a candy cane or two!
This, you see, is the problem with decision-making. The problem with planning of any kind. There's always another side to the question that deserves consideration.
Here it is, Oct. 23, and Christmas barely two months away. What are you going to do?
Personally, I'm going to buy a few treats for Halloween, and let nature take her course.
Monty S. Leitch is a Roanoke Times columnist.
by CNB