It's Already Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas...

It's working. This stupid thing of retailers to begin the holiday season is starting to work on me even though I'm stubbornly refusing to admit it.

I know that because of last year and the fact that consumers didn't spend as much as retailers needed for the holiday season, this year they're trying to make it longer in hopes that it encourages us to buy more and spend more.

So, instead of waiting until right before Thanksgiving, this year, the weekend after Halloween, the holiday season is in full swing.

I'm trying to ignore it. It's rather hard.

For example, my mother and I went out this weekend in hopes of going to The Fresh Market, Target and Kohls for a leisurely browse. I didn't need anything new but it's quite fun to look, just in case that perfect sweater/top/jacket/pair of trousers/shoes is out there.

We started at The Fresh Market. This is a store that's rather like Whole Foods for those of you who aren't familiar with it. It's like one of the Whole Foods you find in one of the smaller cities like Cincinnati, rather than the two-story mega versions of Whole Foods you find in L.A., London and the larger cities. It's mostly organic. The prices are high but everything's rather....fancy. They have small produce, cheese, bakery and meat sections but what they have is the upscale things, the fancy cheeses, the gourmet produce and the luxury meats. My mother and I are both Food-Network inspired cooks and we love to browse stores like this to see what they have.

So we decided to go to The Fresh Market on Saturday to see what fancy produce they had and to just have a look. It's an expensive store, just like Whole Foods, but when the ingredients are good and hard to find elsewhere, sometimes it's worth the splurge.

We got inside and I got excited. Figs were on sale. I love figs. I miss fresh from the tree figs like I used to get in California. I picked some up. My mother and I navigated to the produce aisle which is along the wall. Oddly, there was a line of people in front of it. I'm talking one of those lines of people militaristically waiting, very seriously, for something. It made it quite hard to get to the produce or even to browse.

Then we actually looked at what they were waiting for. Well, it turned out we had stumbled into The Fresh Market's holiday open house sampler day. All around the rather small store were stations with free samples of things that you might serve during a holiday party. This meant it was impossible to get anywhere to look at anything. We weren't about to join the line of free samplers because the line was long and we had plans for lunch. However, we were still wanting to browse but everywhere you turned, the line wove around each part of the store. When people had their free samples, they simply hovered where there was space to eat so they could move on to the next station. This was lovely for them but not the smartest choice for those of us that simply wanted to shop.

The whole store was also decorated for Christmas. They had the Christmas cookies and baking supplies adorned with holiday glitter so we couldn't miss them. The Christmas coffees and teas were on prominent display. There was the scent of cinnamon everywhere.

It was beginning to look a lot like Christmas. I stubbornly fought it. It got harder as I saw all of the accoutrements that go with the holidays. I love Christmas. I love all of the things that go with Christmas. When you're being invited to jump in with both feet and tempted by the things you love, it's hard to ignore it.

My mother fought against it too. Of course, she ended up with two chocolate advent calendars in her cart. In her defense, they're quite hard to find and with all the grandchildren, they love opening a door that counts down to Christmas each day during December.

Still, by the time we left, I was starting to think I really needed to get on with my Christmas shopping.

After lunch, we moved onto Kohls. Well, naturally, there were Christmas songs playing. There were the gift displays. Christmas trees were everywhere. It was hard to find the every day clothes that you want to buy yourself amongst the clothes that are clearly positioned to be gift options to others.

Which leads me to one of my problems with Christmas beginning this early. Generally, once the holiday season begins and I start buying gifts for others in earnest, I have a general ban on buying things for myself. This is because a) it's a time for giving to others and, b) because if I see something I like, it provides a nice option to tell someone when they ask for a Christmas list.

Because of this ban, if I do contemplate buying myself something, guilt follows. Sometimes, it's overrideable. Like last year, I bought a jacket for myself because it was $7 and it was a puffy jacket and just how often do you see a deal like that?

Yet still I had the guilt.

This year, it's only the first week of November. Having started a new job in which I'm required to wear business casual, I'm still not fully stocked in my wardrobe. This is because my last job allowed me to wear jeans, t-shirts and other casual attire. While I have some business casual wear, I'm still looking to expand.

However, when you go shopping in order to browse for possible work wear and you're confronted, head on, with Christmas, you suddenly feel...guilty.

In Kohls, my sudden need to start buying gifts suddenly kicked in.

It began to be combined with a sudden desire to sniff the sparkly sugar cookie candles and lovingly pat the peppermint-candy soaps that were on display. It made me want to "aw" over the cute snowmen that were tempting me with their snow and sparkles.

In short, the retailers were starting to win.

Then we went to Target. The dollar section was filled with Christmas items. Everywhere, there was some small indication that it was time to start Christmas shopping. The pet aisles had cute antlers to adorn your dog/cat, stockings filled with chew toys and Christmas packaged dog biscuits. The clothing section had t-shirts emblazoned with holiday designs. The toy aisles had swelled to include all of the items that call out to children to be added to lists. Then there were the Christmas aisles, lit by the glow of many trees and their multi-coloured lights.

Yes, it was, indeed, beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

Even the weather decided to help. While I was driving to my parents on Friday night, the clouds were heavy and 45 minutes into the trip, big, fat, beautiful snowflakes began to fall...and fall. I ended up driving through what felt like a blizzard where the giant, cascading flakes came so fast that I could barely see between them.

By Saturday morning, in time for the beginning of this holiday injected shopping trip, the ground was sparkling white with a thick layer of frost and the remnants of the snowfall the night before. It looked like a winter wonderland.

It's hard to resist the call of the holiday season. I'm trying yet part of me feels like it might be ok to just accept the inevitable and not mind the strains of "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas," when I hear them in every store.

Yet, there's still Thanksgiving to think about before Christmas is really under way. Still, maybe it wouldn't hurt to make a mug of peppermint hot chocolate and start my Christmas list and Christmas cards.

Eek gads. See what the retailers have done to me?

Happy Monday!

The (Electronic) Complications that Men Devise

I'm getting a late start on this blog today for no other reason than I just haven't really had time to sit down. I tried to sleep in a little this morning but, as is usually the case, that didn't really happen. Nevertheless, I think I finally have time now.

I spent the last half an hour trying to find a way to put on some nice, peaceful music for my mother who is currently wrapping gifts. My mother does not like to wrap gifts so I thought it might be quite nice if she got a little festive. Unfortunately, my father has one of those ridiculously complicated set-ups for his media system. Thus, you have to turn on the right combination of equalizers and things to even get a CD to play. After having no luck at this, I gave up only to try one other method of getting a CD to play. It's finally working. I find it rather ridiculous that you have to work that hard to play music. At home, I have a CD player. You pop in a disc and voila!...music.

I've never understood those complex audio systems. I know, they sound better when they have about ten components to ensure the best quality sound. I just find it baffling that there are about five different 'on' switches you have to hit to get a CD to play. I've found, for the most part, it is men who care about this sort of thing, really. I know it's a little sexist but it seems to me that we women tend to like things a little simpler. Sure, we like improved sound quality but if it involves much more than either intuitively knowing how to use the equipment OR following more than a simple set of a-b-c instructions, it's just not worth the bother.

Men, however, will go to any lengths to get it right. They will climb on ladders, take out walls, redesign an entire room just to make things just perfect. At least, that's how the men in my life are. I have learned that the translation for "I have a fantastic piece of electronic equipment and it'll only take an hour to install. It'll be a breeze!" really means "I've got this gadget that someone told me was cool and I'm going to spend the entire day trying to hook it up and I will most likely scream and shout at you by the end of the day because it's not working right."

Nevertheless, there are some times when men are simpler creatures than we are. Take, for example, shopping. Yesterday, my shopper's assistant abilities were called into play by my brother. I think I've mentioned that during the Christmas season, I tend to accompany my family individually to help them pick out gifts for each other. Well, yesterday was my older brother. The day before was my mother. I adore shopping with my mother. She contemplates items, wondering if it's just right, wondering if she should buy it. Not so with my brother. You give him a suggestion and there's little debate. It's more of a 'Right! Good idea! Let's buy it."

And that is how we did at shopping. I'd point out a good suggestion for a sibling, nephew, niece or parent and by brother would simply scoop it off the shelf and buy it. In a way, it's quite fun. There's no argument. Mostly there's a 'do you really think that's a good gift?' If I say yes, the item is bought. If not, he often buys it anyway.

Don't get me wrong, my brother is extremely generous and thoughtful with his gift buying. It's just that he needs a lot of guidance. Otherwise, he ends up buying odd gifts that he thinks are great but we tend to wonder what we'd do with them. For example, one Christmas upon which he did not have assistance in shopping, my mother, sister and I all got those Febreze Scent Story machines. Do you remember them? They had a 'compact disc' of scents that would gently waft out. I think, in theory, they were a cool idea. It's just that the discs cost rather a lot of money and really only lasted about three days before it started to get faint. In addition, they stopped making the scent discs quite shortly after we got the machines so, in the end, we had these nice machines and nothing to do with them. It's not that I wasn't grateful but it was a bit of an odd gift.

The year after, he started asking for suggestions and, for the most part, every year since, I've helped him shop. It's a nice way to bond with him as well as make sure he's actually buying gifts that suit people. Tomorrow, I'll be accompanying my father. This is also a slightly necessary thing to do. I don't know what we're buying but usually it requires some intervention. We always go shopping for things for my mother and if I'm not careful, she always ends up with a stack of books that are comprised of serial books. Unfortunately, my dad doesn't always seem to notice this which is why mum often ends up with book 4 of the series when she hasn't read books 1-3. Also, one year, he bought her this rather, um, hideous clay vase thing that you plugged in and it had a diorama of an angel holding out her arms in it. It was not my mother's taste at all.

Thus, I staged an intervention and, as with my brother, it has now become a fun tradition. We always have lunch then head home for a relaxing Christmas Eve. It's a fun thing to do.

But, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying Christmas is all about gifts. It just is part of the holiday. The way I look at it is that it should be a chance to show people you love that you know them, that you care about them enough to find something that they'd like. Sometimes we get it right, sometimes not so much. Yet it should still be a fun experience. For me, shopping with my family is part of Christmas as much as opening gifts.

For now, I have to go check to make sure the music is still playing for my mother. It's gone rather quiet in there. I'm hoping her disc hasn't run out because putting a new one in involves a CD changer that doesn't seem to work quite right. Wish me luck.

Happy Wednesday!