Where to Get Everything During Every Christmas
Chances are I won’t be able to buy all the right things for everyone this Christmas, just like every other Christmas, just like every year. Chances are I’ll forget someone on my Christmas list and when I run into them at a party without having something to give them, it will be awkward.
Chances are I’ll be too tired to really enjoy this holiday season, and I won’t have time for everyone that I want to make time for. Chances are I’ll feel guilty about this.
Chances are that the potluck food that I’m planning to bring at the Christmas party won’t be eaten, or it won’t taste as good as I hoped. Chances are the time that I took to make it won’t be appreciated by everybody.
Chances are that I’ll get sick right after the holidays because I didn’t rest enough, because I thought that if I didn’t rest, I might be able to get everything done, even though there’s never been a year when I was able to get everything done.
Chances are that the gifts that I get won’t be as good as the gifts that I give, and that by next year everyone will have forgotten what I gave them, even though I gave a lot of thought to every single gift.
Chances are I won’t have the money to pay off the credit cards used to pay for all the gifts and airplane fare and party supplies this Christmas.
Chances are my friends and family will be too busy to realize how unbelievably tired I am, even though I’m trying to do my best.
But there’s a good chance that I will see them soon, or a bit later, after Christmas, when there’s no pressure to make everything perfect. There’s a good chance that we won’t be wearing festive clothes or eating festive food or be surrounded by festive decorations.
Because there’s no pressure to cram everything into one afternoon or one night standing next to a Christmas tree, we will take our time with our thoughts and conversation and be better people for it.
Because the measurement of purchased gifts will not be an issue, we will have one less thing to worry about.
Because there’s no pressure to be kind to everybody, we will just relax and be kind to everybody.
I am looking forward to these days that aren’t Christmas, which far outnumber that one day of Christmas.
* In case you’re wondering: I don’t really go through all of the above things during Christmas, but decided to write it because of what I’ve been seeing lately at the malls and in the streets and from what I’ve heard from other people. I just used the “I” pronoun because it’s shorter and sounds better than “Chances are many people will, during Christmas…”