Christmas Is Near

As we hear everywhere these days, Christmas is right around the corner. Are you a last minute shopper? The one who is begging the merchants to keep their door open just one more minute, so you can pick up the perfect gift.

What’s it to be the electric egg cooker, the wall clock with the 12 singing birds or a pig Chia pet.

Before choosing a gift remember what my neighbor used to say, “Don’t give me anything that hangs on the wall, sits on the floor or on the counter.”

If you are the “Martha Stewart” type, your gift shopping was complete months ago, in fact, immediately after the regift season last year. She always knows the perfect gift for all the perfect people.

These days, our mailboxes are filled with all sorts of circulars and catalogs. When we were much younger, much younger, there was a special catalog that arrived in the mail, the Sears Christmas catalog. Pages and pages of toys for boys and girls, dolls, doll houses, doll clothing, cowboy and cheerleader costumes, cap guns and holsters.

Everyone drooled over these catalogs hoping that Santa would bring everything on their list which conveniently included the item, page number, and price.

But there is a real adult catalog where there are gifts if money is no object, the Neiman-Marcus Christmas Fantasy catalog. Among the unusual gifts is the ultimate gift for you and five companions, a balloon ride to 100,000 feet above earth for 5-6 hours, cost $90,000. Pocket change.

Practice your ooh’s and aah’s when you open the envelope with the gift certificate to McDonald’s or the regifted fruitcake.

Does everyone have to be reminded that we are told it is better to give than to receive? Just make sure that when you attend a party with a gift that is suppose to cost $15, well that it really does.