Christmas Wrapped

Preparedness is definitely not my middle name. (Okay, it’s Susan if you really must know.) I’m the mom who’s often scavenging the store aisles for a birthday gift on our way to the party, or stuck with whatever lame Halloween candy is still available on October 30. But for the holidays, for some reason, I’ve got it down. 

The digital “stickies” on my Mac desktop are my best friend. All year long, as I come across something on the web that I know will make the perfect gift for someone on my increasingly long list, I jot down the url right there on my desktop. Because like most moms, if I don’t write it down, it’s gone. Out of my head. Buh-bye. See you never. 

It’s not high tech or some fancy Excel document. It’s not even all that organized. But it is there. And boy, it helps. Because by the time October rolls around I have a new mantra: If you like it, buy it. 

(Yes, October. The holiday advertising season is just hitting earlier and earlier, isn’t it? Any year now I expect soft, melty chocolate Santas lining the shelves in July.)

If I see something I know is the perfect gift, I don’t leave the store without getting it because I know I’ll never come back. Or worse, I want to come back but I can’t for the life of me remember where it was. Or far worse, I come back and someone else has grabbed the last one. I have kind of bad gift buying karma that way. 

And so, I buy. 

Slowly the colorful shopping bags in the back of my bedroom closet start accumulating-a lens for the sigOth’s new camera, cool cookie tins for home-baked hostess gifts, Wii games that I can pass off as something for the kids. Add that to the stocking stuffers I nab from various travel destinations throughout the year, and suddenly I’m in pretty good shape by the time December rolls around. It takes a minimum of effort too. And I’m all about the minimum of effort.  

And if all else fails? There’s always the regifting bag from Christmas mishaps past.  After all, you never know who’s going to need a Magic 8 Ball.