Christmas Shopping Just Ain’t the Same

If you Christmas shop, how do you do it? Actually, if you shop for gifts at all… and most of us do… how do you do it? I’ve found over the past few years, I’ve pretty much totally switched to on-line shopping. Convenience, laziness, immediacy, better prices? Sometimes… usually… all of the above.

I feel like I do the same amount of ‘shopping’, but it’s just not the same. Though I don’t miss the traffic, long lines and stress associated with Christmas shopping, I kind of miss the whole experience of heading to ‘the mall’ or my favorite department store or specialty store and mingling with all the other shoppers. I miss checking out all the Christmas decorations and listening to the Christmas elevator music in the background while I search for the perfect gift for everyone on the list.

Like so many, I have the Amazon app and several others on my phone and my tablet and my computer, so I can shop and order something on a whim anytime I choose… middle of the night, early Sunday morning, at midnight on Tuesday. No touching or feeling the merchandise, just ‘ship it’ and it shows up on my doorstep or the chosen recipient (or sometime my neighbor’s door instead of mine.) Now, the delivery person sometimes even puts it in my garage to avoid porch pirates.

As we’ve crossed the country this past month, we could barely go a mile before we saw an Amazon delivery van, an Amazon semi on the highway or even a train load of Amazon products heading ‘somewhere’.

There’s something impersonal about all this. I don’t actually see the gift before I send it to someone else’s home. I trust that the Amazon elves choose what I thought I ordered and deliver it on time. I haven’t wrapped the gift myself with the personal touches I try to add. It comes in a generic Amazon box.

This year I’m celebrating Christmas in Rhode Island with Lin and her family. In addition to Lin and Mark, there’s my nephew, Nick plus a combined seven grand-nieces and nephews. It’s a modern family. Easy-peasy! I ordered everything in November before I left Las Vegas and it was all sitting here waiting for me to wrap it and place it under the tree. A couple of things were not as expected and have already been returned to Amazon (free of charge) and replaced with what I thought I ordered.

For all my complaints of on-line shopping being impersonal, I just received my Amazon bill for the month and it appears I’ve embraced it… a lot! Perhaps in the future, I can just imagine what I want sent and it’ll just appear (all wrapped just the way I’d do it) under someone’s tree. And perhaps, the month’s end bill will miraculously get paid just the way I’d imagined it, too!