56 Days ‘Til Christmas! Ho-Ho-Oh-Who-Am-I-Kidding?

Ugh…I can’t even begin to deal with the Christmas onslaught yet.  Seriously?  How can it even be that time of year already?  I love Christmas.  I love the spirit of the holiday, families being together, decorating the house, making and eating decorating all of the cookies, sitting in the dark watching the snow fall by the lit Christmas tree..almost all of it.  What I don’t like is Christmas shopping.

Now you’d think that a girl who shops and coupons and should probably get some kind of help the way that I do would be excited to shop for gifts… well, I’m not.  Shopping for gifts is totally different for me than shopping for day to day items.  Shopping for gifts is a lot of pressure, man!  The 10 year old started showing me every single thing under the sun and she wants it all things last year on DECEMBER 26th!!!  DECEMBER 26th!!  With wrapping paper still scattered around my living room!!

And to make it worse, Christmas stuff is put out in all of the stores at the beginning of October, for the love of Pete!  October!!

I haven’t even had the battle royale with the kiddo over the Halloween costume yet!  (And no, you many not wear the costume that shows more skin than a Vegas showgirl.  I don’t CARE if it’s marketed to little girls!  And by the way, who markets this garbage to little girls??)

I hate the pressure of it all.  “Buy this pink-sparkly-kid-thing-that’s-only-the-cost-of-a-car-payment, or you’re a bad parent!”  “See this commercial for luxury cars with big, red bows on top?  If you loved your partner, you’d buy him one!”  The ridiculous cost of some of this stuff..$100 or more for a certain brand of doll that the 10 year old loves.   $50 or more for the accessories to go with said doll.

I buy so many of their things second hand, but some things, especially at Christmas, are retail.  It’s a matter of getting the best deals, lining up the sales, the coupons, oy.  What a pain.  And the older the kids, the more expensive the wish list, amiright?  Remember when the boxes were more fun than what was in them?  Yeah, me too.  Good times.

Over the last few years, I’ve done quite a bit of online shopping for Christmas.  It’s so much easier than dragging us out into the craziness that is the mall area any time from December to January.  I get hives just thinking about navigating that mess with two kids in tow.

When I do shop online, I like a few different sites.  http://www.disneystore.com/,  http://www.amazon.com/,  http://www.target.com/ and http://www.walmart.com/  are good for kid’s things like toys, dvd’s and electronics.   For clothes I do use a second hand site,  http://www.thredup.com/...awesome big-brand clothes for women & kids that are inspected to make sure they are in like-new (or very close) condition and they have lots of sales and they often have free shipping. 

And shopping for Hallee!  Auuuuugh!  She’s 16, but functions at about a 6 year old level.  Would she like something age appropriate like an iPod? Or something at her functioning age level?  Play-Doh?  Finger paints? She has tons of both.  And.. she hates new things!  I have to hide the new clothes that I buy her in her closet and pretend they’ve always been there.  She’ll whip something out and glare suspiciously at it…”Where you buy this?”, she’ll ask.  “Oh that?  I bought that at Old Navy last year, you like that one.”  Yes, I lie to my kid.  Don’t you judge me.

It’s not unusual for Hallee to have unopened Christmas presents in mid-January.  She likes to look at the boxes but could care less about what’s in them.  This, historically, has driven her sister insane.  What little kid can stand to see unopened gifts?  “I’ll open it!  I’ll open it!”, she says.  I tell her we can’t, that it’s Sissy’s gift and she’ll get around to it eventually.  It’s like a special form of sibling torture.

So there you have it…the girl who loves to shop hates Christmas shopping.  The expense, the stress, the cheer being shoved down your gullet before the leaves have fallen.  I have gotten a few bits and pieces and stashed them away, but the rest will be done online.  At least I think it will.  Mad, who is 10, knows what Black Friday is now and has been asking to go all year.  Ho-Ho-Ho (oh no)!!

Allyson Sorenson

About Allyson Sorenson

Bangor mom. BDN blogger. Volvo lover. Coffee drinker.