This Year I Will Spend Less for Christmas

Every year I make a promise to myself. I will spend less for Christmas. I bet you can guess what I’ll say next. You’re right! I always spend too much for Christmas. I start early, finding something just right for, let’s say, my sister-in-law. Then I find something even better for sister-in-law, so I buy that too. So add to sis-in-law: son 1 and wife, son 2 and wife, grandson, brother, niece and husband, nephew and wife, best friend, five additional and different best friends, and unknown recipient at work. The years I go to one of the son’s home for Christmas I spend less for decorations, but then there’s the airfare! But it doesn’t seem fair to count the airfare as a gift to that son and his wife.

So this year I will spend less for Christmas. Period. Full stop. And here’s how, so if any of the aforementioned (you know who you are) are reading this, listen up. [Wait a minute—reading? listen? Isn’t that sort of like a mixed metaphor?] Anyway, I mustn’t get distracted. Pay attention. One gift for each person (and we’re not talking a Tiffany bracelet here, a new flat-screen TV [I think they all have one...I don't] or a new set of golf clubs. We’re talking simple, hopefully unusual, thoughtful little (in size as well as…well, it’s tacky, but you know…cost) gifts they’ll treasure. Then perhaps a small (same previous adjectives) for the house, or that they’ll both love/appreciate/use as well as treasure.

I really have been saying this mantra for years, especially to my children, who are now 46 and 44. They stopped believing me years ago; they usually laugh, snicker, or snort whenever I say “I will spend less for Christmas” this year. But guys, this time I MEAN IT!

You may wonder why I’m even thinking about this toward the end of October. The Christmas decorations are up in only some places. After Halloween they’ll sprout like dandelions after a good rain. Well, this weekend I’m going to visit my friend in Reno, and there are lots of wonderful little places around, like Truckee, with its really special glass store, and there’s other places Cabby will take me. Temptation will run rampant, and I must be strong! Then at Thanksgiving, Cabby and I will spend the time in Angels Camp, which is really close to Murphys, Sonora, and not too far from Jackson and Sutter’s Creek. Oh, the places in those little tourist-trap towns! It’s major temptation, major danger. I will spend less for Christmas.

I’ll make another promise too. After Christmas, I will come back to this blog with an honest report. I will have spent less and given fewer gifts. Knowing that I have to account to whomever bothers to read my blogs will keep me on the straight and narrow.

Boys! Stop laughing, snickering and snorting!