December 17, 2022 Christmas Shopping

Only eight days to Christmas. Time flies when you’re having fun they say, and they’re right. I’ve been having too much fun skiing to want to think about shopping. 

I guess it’s time to start Christmas shopping. 

I’d rather be skiing. Or fishing, or well pretty much anything but Christmas shopping. There seems to be so much pressure on people and on Christmas. I know it has always been pressure packed at this time of year but as I get older I get more jaded. Or is it as my daughter gets older?

But my daughter is what brought me out of my funk. She dragged me to the mall, kicking and screaming. Ok, there was no kicking and very little screaming… 

Still, she convinced me to go to the mall with her and shop for presents. I know I have it pretty easy when it comes to Christmas shopping. All I have to buy is for my daughter and my wife. Strangely the number of people I shop for increased after we got to the mall. It was a good thing I had my kid there to help me. 

The mall was filled with other shoppers wandering the halls of commercial mayhem. At least our small city isn’t as crazy as the big malls in the big cities. I remember the chaos of shopping in Chinook Centre or Southcentre malls in Calgary. Orchard Park Mall is a joke compared to those places. 

But the basics are the same.

Young kids run from place to place wanting this or demanding that. Seniors walk carefully looking at all the sales. Mothers are shopping for the family. Yet most of the responsible mothers are already done. 

And then there were the other men like me. Wandering aimlessly. Staring with a vacant look on our faces. Hoping for an epiphany to answer the age-old question.

“What the hell to buy for my wife?”

Then it hit me and I figured out a present. Of course, we’d already been in the store where they had it. But we walked back and there it was. The perfect gift. I hope…

On our journey, my daughter showed me all the things she wanted. Her Christmas list has sure changed in the last ten years. In those years it has gotten harder. She doesn’t want toys anymore. Now it’s clothes and tech. Buying clothes for my sixteen-year-old daughter is more than difficult. It’s almost impossible. So having her drag me into the clothing stores in the mall was a saviour. Kind of like going to the dentist for a root canal. A thing that is painful at the time but a relief in the end. 

I wish Christmas could be different. I wish that it wasn’t so commercial. I long for a day when it is about the basics and not the gift. It was so much easier when my daughter was happy with a doll or a game. I am thankful that she isn’t someone who cares about the latest and greatest. After two hours wandering the commercial church of the mall, I felt relief and connection. 

I was almost done my shopping.

I was very thankful my kid is growing into a beautiful person. I may miss the days she still believed in Santa Claus but now I feel very proud she believes in herself. I also feel relieved she could drag me through a mall on the last weekend before Christmas and we could enjoy the moments. 

I felt a sense of accomplishment and gratitude for the connection I made with my daughter. Happy Christmas shopping everyone. I hope you can find the same connection in these days of chaotic commercialism.