Wait to Shop on Christmas Eve? What a Concept!

Clarksville, TN – When I returned home late in the afternoon, I collapsed on the couch and announced that I was exhausted from shopping for Christmas.

“Your problem is that you didn’t wait until Christmas Eve to shop,” my dear husband responded.

His comment boggled my imagination. I could just see what kind of Christmas we’d have if I waited until Christmas Eve to begin.

I might cook a turkey, four or five vegetables, make fruit salad, bake rolls and have two or three desserts available. That does take a bit of time. If I were out shopping for everyone on the list, I would have to resort to having the grocery store cook the meal and then to warming it up before lunchtime. You know, that doesn’t sound like too bad a plan.

Then were I foolish enough to wait until the last minute to buy for everyone, what about the boxes I have to mail to some of our family? Those would all arrive some time around New Year’s or the middle of January, I suspect! I don’t think that would go over very well.

Ah, and then there are the Christmas decorations. If they didn’t go up until Christmas Eve, we wouldn’t get to enjoy them at all until after the holiday—and wouldn’t that be somewhat of a letdown? I’m just not sure that the Christmas tree isn’t rather sad when all the presents have been opened. Anyway, if I were shopping all of Christmas Eve, I wouldn’t have time to put up the tree at all!

Too frightening to contemplate is the possibility of what might be left in the stores to buy if I waited until Christmas Eve! I know that my husband always has his tradition of buying for me that day—and he buys lovely clothes for me every year—but I don’t think I could risk waiting to see what would be left.

I do recall one Christmas when my dad made the poor decision to wait and shop for my mother on Christmas Eve. The sweater and slacks that didn’t match and the set of black nightclothes he produced created an incident he never forgot. Let’s put it this way: he remembered forever that waiting until the last minute was not one of his choices.

I suppose if I did wait until Christmas Eve to shop that I could just purchase gift cards for everyone. It could save so much time trying to pick out something that everyone wants. Of course, I tend to buy something I think they’d like and give them a gift card too.

Maybe I’ll think this plan over, but I doubt seriously I could wait until Christmas Eve to shop. Just think of all the fun I’d miss racing from store to store and keeping lists and bagging all the gifts and hiding them away until the proper moment.

I actually like to shop.