Christmas Cheer

I think that most of us have a love/hate relationship with Christmas. You think you have all this time to get everything done, but then suddenly you look at a calendar and it's December freaking 12th already. How did that happen? So, here is it, less than two weeks till Christmas now, and a to-do list 10 miles long. It really makes you wonder if it's all worth it. I mean, in some ways, it's wonderful that we have a holiday where you are guaranteed to get and give presents to everyone important in your life. It's a wonderful way to be personal with them and to express your love for them. It is also a fun time to get together with those people that you love and share in traditions and good food.

On the other hand, what percentage of those gifts that you ran your ass off and went into debt to buy will just get returned or thrown to the back of a closet after Christmas? Maybe it would be better if we all just figured up what we were going to spend on other people and just started a new tradition of just giving cash. I guess in some ways, we already do that with the ever-popular "gift card". All that is is store-specific cash, which for some reason just looks more thoughtful than a wad of cash in a card.

I am not at all trying to be a bah-humbug because I personally love Christmas more than I hate it. It just seems that every year that goes by brings us more commercial, spend your money type holiday cheer and less love you forever, wanted to show you how much type. My Christmas wish is that everyone who is stressing out right now about gifts and to-do lists and cooking and such would just take a moment to realize that the people who are most important in their lives will not care if all those things are not done in time. All that matters is that you get to spend some time with the people you love. I know that is what I'm most looking forward to.