Today I've felt like I was under full on holiday assault!
Halloween was barely in the bag (or pillow case depending on how generous your neighborhood is), Thanksgiving Turkey is still lurking in the fridge (pushing me to gobble gobble some more every time I open the door to see what beckons), Black Friday apologetically stole a nights sleep off me, and now Christmas has launched a full on assault on the inside of the house.
Don't get me wrong I love the holidays. Mostly because my wife really really loves the holidays. It is super cute to watch her pure unadulterated passion and excitement and to watch her become a child again with the same sort of childish glee that our boys show.
Halloween is one of her favorites and she has already instilled in our two little boys the passion, joy, and enthusiasm for dressing up in something fun for Halloween. We didn't celebrate it in New Zealand when I grew up so it is a fun experience for me as well. But I wonder sometimes at a tradition that involves threatening your neighbors with eggs and toilet paper and lit brown paper bags of dubious contents unless they concede to a shakedown by you for their candy. Not to mention the whole Zombie thing. Was this holiday invented by Voodoo Mafioso's as a way to get their sugar addiction taken care of? This year we coordinated our costumes with the neighbors to create a full wizard of Oz themed group. I was of course a munchkin from the lollipop leagues as were my sons. Mainly because I completed spaced and couldn't pull off a flying monkey costume at short notice. My wife was a green faced wicked witch. Note to self: Don't leave costume organization to last minute in the future and if you do remember the lollipop league munchkins are an easy costume to make at short notice although they do require some sacrificial clothing to really embrace the roll. Also when you are munchkin marrying a green faced witch can give you some serious rank among the other munchkins.
Thanksgiving is also one of her favorites. She took the holiday and concept of Thanksgiving on her pilgrimage down under. Forcing the natives to come and celebrate it every year with her. Great idea don't you think? If you can't get home to Thanksgiving then bring Thanksgiving home to you. She learned how to throw together some candied yams made from sweet potatoes from scratch since yams in a can aren't big in the Australian grocery scene. There was plenty of confusion on the part of the
Of course there is the anticipation building of all the phat loot from retailers touting their bounty on one of the busiest shopping days of the year. Black Friday. And with the sister deals a few days later of Cyber Monday you can nail a lot of your Christmas shopping at the same time you put your money towards stimulating the economy. I spent the last few years on Black Friday terrorizing Kohl's staff as I bought thousands of towels in their sale. I did offer the stores that I would happily come back a week after Black Friday itself to pick them up if they would honor the price on a less chaotic day for them. But rules are rules. No chance. I had to mosh in there with the rest of us all digging for a deal. This year I only picked up around 180 towels from one Kohl's store. So Black Friday for they and I this year not so Black compared to last year where I picked up around 2000 towels between four stores and online as well. It took from 4am until 11am to get checked out just in a single store with all the towels last year. This year I was out in 2 hours.
I can advise all those Black Friday novices that there are better times than others to hit the stores.
I found this year that most of the stores I went to (Best Buy, Kohl's, and Walmart) were quiet around 3-4 am. So perhaps 3-5am is the sweet spot for stores that happen to have been open since midnight. It is hard to sustain shopping passion over an extended period when you normally would be asleep. Of course to do that you are almost certain not to be the lucky recipient of a door buster deal. But if the deal is really important you can camp outside the day before as some people do. The door busters are those loss leader adverts that have the companies in question losing money on certain Black Friday deals. Don't feel too concerned for the retailers. They are more than making up from it on the rest of the sales traffic that comes with the hordes.
It's when people have that sinking realization they aren't going to be in the running for a door buster prize, to be a Black Friday dealer maker after all. At that point they can go home and admit defeat until next year or they can throw themselves with vigor at the deals left on the table when the stampede clears and the dead and wounded are carried off for repairs. No one wants to go home empty handed if they charge the Black Friday barricades.
If you can't handle this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ip11CEddIcg you should consider staying in and shopping via the internet. A lot of retailers now offer deals online but most of them pale compared to what you can find in store. They want your eyeballs, and wallets, in the stores surrounded by the tempting candy of the other offers they've put together just for you!
Cyber Monday is the Monday following Black Friday and it is a new shopping tradition invented by the non bricks and mortar stores. Cyber Monday also seems to be more about technology buys. This year I came across someone who had never heard of Cyber Monday so I guess it isn't as well known as Black Friday. I also came across the concept of buy local Saturday. Where a lot of people are choosing to support small local businesses on Saturday instead of the big box nationwide retailers on Black Friday.
Anyway in the commercial chaos Thanksgiving can suddenly seem a distant memory even though it was only 24 hours earlier!!.
When I came back from exercising my rampant commercialism bargain hunting tendencies I discovered the Thanksgiving decorations on their way into storage, the one remaining Halloween decoration we'd missed putting away torn to pieces by the dog, and a sea of Christmas decorations exploding across our house and the neighborhood!
I guess I should be thankful that all the holidays have been cooperating and handing off in an orderly manner rather than just grabbing at me and dragging me off to the cash register. But it still feels a little like I'm under assault by vacations. As I watched my wife humming as she returned from braving Walgreen's for several replacement strands of lights and my boys run around the house unpacking 3 generation old hand made Christmas ornaments I realized I don't mind at all a little holiday siege.
In fact for the experience and chaos of it all I am eternally thankful.
