Merry Christmas

Random Christmas observations drawn from personal experience:

If you wait to mail gifts to distant loved ones until a few days before Christmas, when it’s too late for them to arrive before December 25, the lines at the post office are much shorter.

Why is it, that after you’ve bought a gift for one person on your list, you keep finding things in store after store that would be absolutely perfect for that person?

In my shopping the last couple of weeks, Christmas and otherwise, I’ve noticed that store clerks everywhere (well, okay, in the six or seven stores I’ve shopped at) are saying, “Have a nice day,” instead of, “Happy Holidays,” or, “Merry Christmas.” Is this an attempt to avoid the whole who-do-we-offend-this-year political correctness issue? Or are they, by the third week in December, simply sick of the whole holiday routine?

When I buy Christmas wrapping paper, I judge it by two criteria: First, of course, it has to be on sale. Second, its design needs to include some straight lines both horizontally and vertically. This is a great help in cutting straight edges when I’m wrapping gifts. Despite this particular obsessive quirk, my wrapped gifts generally look as if they were done by an eight-year-old who was using dull scissors and who couldn’t find the tape.

But no wonder you can never find the tape when you need it. The label says it all: it’s “invisible.”

Blessings to all those of you who actually write, print, and send out Christmas letters—before Christmas, yet. Even though I’ve never done one, I love getting them. It’s great to hear about your year.

Luckily, each year, about three-fourths of the way through my Christmas shopping, I wake up and remember that giving gifts is simply another way to say, “I love you.”

May your Christmas be a wonderful time of celebration with those you care about most.