It’s that time of year! The time to hang up festive lights, hug fat men in red suits, and put gifts under trees that resemble old and overused bristly toothbrushes; yes, that very glorious time of year.
I’m excited. Christmas has never been widely celebrated within my family, but I’ve been lucky enough to have friends from all parts of the world who love celebrating this holiday, which means I’ve had some unique insight as to how people from different countries spend Christmas. I’ve spent it with a German family, who had sausages and drank till they passed out, a Swedish family, who ate mashed potatoes and drank till they passed out, lots of Australian families, who had barbecues and drank till they pass— okay, so maybe not that unique.
Anywho, the last few weeks have been all about the very stressful time leading up to the big day where I have one or two many mental breakdowns as I struggle to find gifts for various people and come to realize I’m a terrible person because I know nothing about what they like.
And then I eventually get to a point where I convince myself that it’s the thought that counts, and I’m sure I hope my God I’m praying they’ll appreciate anything I get them.
And then there’s the next phase – you know, the one where you become the Christmas Grinch and decide you don’t care anymore and presents are stupid anyway and why do we even do Christmas gifts when it’s so stressful and you just want to spend the day in bed watching Jessica Jones in peace?!
At this point, a friend of mine usually starts offering suggestions while exercising the high degree of patience that you need to have to deal with me during the holidays.
“Maybe you can just bake something for them instead?” and I go “Okay, yeah. I can do that. I like baking.”
Except you know how when you bake cookies for yourself, you just simply don’t care how they turn out, because they’re freaking cookies and cookies are delicious? In fact, most of the time, you don’t even have time to look at them cause you’re busy wolfing them down and the inner you is sitting there going:
Yet, the minute you plan to gift them to someone, all of a sudden everyone in your life becomes a food critic akin to Gordon Ramsay on Hell’s Kitchen, and there’s expectation that your baked goods need to taste great, look great, and make you forget all about that time when you were six and that bully took your lunch cookie because no other cookie matters or will matter again.
So you roll up your sleeves, hands trembling slightly, a bead of sweat trickling down your face, and you get baking. And I could (and usually do) end up with near perfect baked goods, but it really just doesn’t matter because regardless of what they actually look like, the inner me is sitting there staring at what smells, looks, and tastes like heaven going:
Oh, the joys of Christmas, I tell you.
I’ll be honest – I think the stress of it all in the weeks prior to Christmas does contribute to the day itself being more pleasant, special, and memorable. It’s the countless hours shopping, wrapping, cooking, and cleaning finally paying off; the inner you finally falling back onto their couch going, “Phew. Me: 1, unrealistic Christmas expectations: 0. Till next year, my friend”.
You would think knowing that would comfort me a little, but I did just spend this morning roaming around a shopping mall looking for white and blue tissue paper to stuff the box I’m going to put Marcus’ mother’s present in, because I noticed her house is decorated with a lot of blue and white colors, and therefore, she must like white and blue and absolutely no other color will do.
I also spent a good hour or so looking for white chocolate macadamia nuts, as part of a candy / chocolate nut jar I’m putting together as a gift for Marcus’ dad. White chocolate covered nuts do not seem to be that popular sold on it’s own, so I ended up with a bag of milk, dark, and white chocolate almonds that I plan to sort through to pick out the white ones. On top of that, I also purchased an entire kilo of milk chocolate macadamia nuts as a back up. You know, in case I cannot find the white chocolate ones and I decide the milk chocolate ones might be okay.
… Yeah, okay, I sound a little crazy. But to be honest, I like going above and beyond. It’s stressful, but I enjoy how touched people seem to be when they realize they received much more than a generic holiday gift.
And who knows, they might open their gift, admire the beautifully stuffed white and blue tissue paper, look up at me with eyes of newfound approval and say:
And that would be so worth it.
Happy Christmas shopping, everyone!
theselittleworlds 
