Solo Christmas

I'm spending Christmas by myself this year. Actually, most years. And despite what holiday traditions would have you believe, it's perfectly fine.

Nothing to do with the content of this post. Nice lights, though.

Holidays in general, and Christmas in particular, are known as time to spend with family and friends. Nothing wrong with that, but people tend to think that there's something wrong if you aren't having company or visiting someone this time of year.

I've taken to being very non-committal whenever the subject of holiday plans arises in conversation. It always does this time of year. The most casual conversation always seems to come around to "What are you doing for Christmas?" Coming right out with "Staying at home by myself" almost always results in some variation of "Oh, that's too bad." So I go with answers like "Oh, just avoiding the holiday travel rush" or "Having a nice quiet family time." (Which is technically true, as I am in fact part of my family.)

That's not to say that I have no contact with family and friends. After all, there are a lot of communication options. Phone calls, Skype, email, Christmas cards...plenty of ways to get in contact and wish people happy holidays. And I tend to do my visiting at other times of year, when I'm not dealing with tons of other people traveling, and those I'm visiting are less busy and stressed out anyway.

So what does one do while spending Christmas at home by yourself? Plenty to read, games to play, and things to watch...some of which are new from opened presents. But besides all that, I like to put some Mannheim Steamroller on the stereo and settle down to think on the reason for the season. Our Saviour's birth is a story worth meditating on. (Even if it probably wasn't actually December 25.)

So I wish everyone a Merry Christmas, whether you're spending it in a big family gathering or quietly at home. Don't be sorry for people who choose to spend it alone. Enjoy the holiday - I know I will!

Gift Wrapping

I'm horrible at wrapping gifts...mine will be the one that looks like the paper was wadded up and taped at random. Don't bother trying to save that wrapping paper! It's still an interesting tradition, though.

Marketplace had a story the other day about the gift wrapping industry, which accounts for over $3 billion a year in retail sales. That seems incredibly high to me, but I guess when pretty much everyone buys your product each year, it's not hard to end up with that kind of money.

I hadn't realized that the idea of decorative wrapping was only about a hundred years old until I heard that Marketplace story, and read this article. Oh, there had been plenty of wrapping before that, largely to protect the gift until it could be delivered. Japan has a tradition of using wrapping cloths, or furoshiki. China may have been the first culture to wrap gifts in paper, way back in the Song dynasty. But those were primarily functional, not decorative.

Furoshiki

In 1917, the Hall brothers ran out of the usual wrapping paper in their Hallmark store in Kansas City. They looked around at what they had in the storeroom, and decided they'd try selling some "fancy French paper" instead. That worked incredibly well, and within a few years Hallmark was making decorative wrapping paper themselves. Now gift wrapping is a massive industry.

So don't feel bad about ripping the paper off those gifts this year. (Do recycle it, though.) It might be inefficient, but it's good for the retail industry.

Neighborhood Lights

I took a walk around the neighborhood a few nights ago. This might seem like a fairly dumb thing to do in December in Michigan, and in normal years that would indeed be the case. After our first moderate snowfall this year, though, it's been unseasonably warm. The temperature stays above freezing most of the time, even after the sun goes down. I wouldn't call it perfect walking weather, but with proper clothing, I stayed plenty warm.

While I was out, I took some pictures of holiday decorations around the neighborhood. I live in a condo, and there's basically nothing done to the outside of my building. You can get a stern talking-to even for putting up decorations in your windows. But where I went on my walk, within a mile or two, there's an entire subdivision of single-family homes that don't have to abide by the condo rules.

No one is going to mistake any of these for the Shilo Inns display, of course, or even Grand Rapids' own Christmas Light Show. Especially not with my questionable photographic talent, which is not helped by using a cell phone camera. But I still enjoyed looking at the displays as I walked through the neighborhood. Nice to see that my neighbors are showing a little of the holiday spirit!

Done Shopping

My Christmas shopping is done. It was really done back before Thanksgiving, but it turned out the wrapping paper left over from last year was insufficient, so I had to make another store trip.

I will now pause while everyone still trying to decide what to buy hates me.

Boxes ready for mailing.

Getting done with shopping early is pretty essential in my case, actually. There's a lot of distance between me and my various gift recipients. 1100 miles is the shortest travel distance. I do use the Internet to send things electronically, of course, especially for the international family members. But I don't like doing that all the time.

My list is pretty short, basically just close family. My circle of friends tends to be of the "let's just go out and buy each another a beer" persuasion over actually exchanging gifts. So that helps when finishing off the gift-buying list.

What really makes it possible to be done with holiday gifts early, though, is shopping all year long. Everyone has those moments when you see something in a store, or run across something online, and think "<insert person here> would really like that." I've learned to take advantage of those moments as they happen. I write down the idea, and pick things up off the list as they're on sale or otherwise easily available.

So once this holiday season is over, don't put down the gift-giving lists. Keep it handy for next year, as and when the ideas are right in front of you.