We are in the holiday season’s home stretch. With umpteen advertisements blaring at us from every computer or TV screen, radio, billboard, magazine, and newspaper, suggestions for gift giving have been flooding our senses since before Halloween.
With the passing weeks, the steady drumbeat to consume increases in volume and tempo. The ads for Black Friday were shrill, but nothing compared to Black Saturday and Cyber Monday, and everything is 20 to 70 percent off, door busters for day or night, super one-day, two-day, three-day, and more-day sales, instant savings, something for the whole family, midnight and night owl specials, weekend and midweek specials, one-of-a-kind deals on one-of-a-kind items, and gifts you can’t wait to give.
So many smiling faces in so many catalogs and circulars and yet, even with oodles of ideas from helpful retailers, I found it difficult to put together a wish list to use in shopping for me.
It’s not like I’m the guy who has everything. No doubt there are plenty of material goods that would enhance my life or give me some pleasure. It’s just that none of my friends and family will know how to put a pretty bow on a new roof for my house or that timeshare condo in Dana Point.
Actually, I hope this year to receive some presents like those of my childhood. Frankly, getting new socks and underwear would be just fine. But as the season shapes up, I realize my desire for physical things is comparatively small.
Christmas cards hit my mailbox, but it seems there are fewer this year. I read the names of those sending holiday wishes and think about the names that are missing this time around. My own roll of cards to be sent has suffered some editing, too; thanks to Father Time, a few more folks on my list no longer have an address on this earth.
Changing circumstances make it more difficult to get together with all of the ones you’d like to see over the holidays. My children and I decided it would be proper this year to celebrate as just the three of us; arriving at a mutually agreeable date was like pulling teeth, but we did it.
Of course, finding face time with some of my dear ones brings to mind the faces of those who have gone on ahead. I try to remember them with happy tears, and they remind me to savor moments with those who can still be hugged and kissed and laughed with here and now. Farewells at holiday parties now include my demand to see my hosts again in the next month or two.
I gave my sons a short list of practical, moderately priced gifts. But I also included something far out of their price range – time. They are asked to bring calendars to our private Christmas celebration so we can plan some get-togethers in the New Year.
Surely there could be no gift as grand as moments with those we hold dear. It is a limited time offer, you know, so get it while you can.
Pat Grimes, a former South Bay resident, writes from Ypsilanti, Mich. He can be reached at pgwriter@inbox.com
