To They of the Last Shopping Days before Christmas
Tomorrow I will have to get the paper bags that I forgot, and maybe one or two other things. It will probably be crowded aisles and uncrowded shelves. The people will be tired. Not jolly, but mostly kind.
You last minute shoppers, I salute you. You care enough to put together a Christmas even when its frantic. You care enough to vow you’ll get going sooner next year, and when you invariably don’t, to decide to do the best you can with the short time you have left. You love Christmas too much. The great hopes you have are too merry for this earth, so you put your prep off until you have no choice, and you head out to follow the star and see if it will lead you to something wonderful even in the chaos and mess of a stable.
The angel choirs practiced for millennia. The shepherds came as they were.
Carter Craft
December 23, 2018
I went Christmas shopping a week in advance this year.
Neither too early nor so late as to be last minute.
E.C.
December 23, 2018
You forget things, or you just don’t think of them until it’s almost too late. We got a new fake tree this year, slightly taller than our old one, and our angel Gloria couldn’t be stuffed on top without breaking her wings. So we made a star out of a coat hanger, some wire, and odd bits of ribbon this afternoon – our only real decorating this year, besides the nativity.
Incidentally, my Christmas shopping was mostly done by last month. It’s just that we’ve been too busy caroling, practicing for recitals, and planning surprise visits to old friends to put up decorations. That’s more in line with the proper Christmas spirit anyway, I suppose.