It's the most wonderful time of the year. Wait. Is it?

Today I got out of bed early - and yes, for once it was a struggle because I went to be around 2am. Thankyou, Wii.

I got to Highpoint around 9:30am and got a park, actually there were oodles of parks. I had a list of what I needed to get, mostly it was for the man because we'd almost finished our family presents. I also had to finish getting best friends presents.

While I was in one particular store collecting the things on my list for the man the song 'all you need is love' by The Beatles was playing. I like the song, and it made me stop and think just how crazy all this Christmas stuff is. The man doesn't want anything for Christmas - and I actually think he is telling the truth. To be honest, I'm not that fussed either. Sure I like getting stuff but its getting a bit ridiculous.

Personally I tend to like buying people lots of smaller gifts because that way they have a better chance of liking something I give them.

But the science behind buying presents is mind boggling. I think the thing that bothers me is when you miscalculate the amount you spend on a person e.g. if I buy someone a present and then the present they give you is obviously more than what you spent on them or worse, they've put more thought into it. What I think is happening is that to avoid this happening people are just spending more money! 'Joe's probably going to spend $50 on me..ah HA well I'll spend $70 and cover myself'. It's pretty much just hedging, insurance if you will. Except it doesn't really work.

So how ridiculous is it getting? I had about three people to buy for and I got home at 2:30pm. Thats 5 hours of shopping. Five HOURS. Not including all the other shopping we've already done. That's also not including recovery time (oh god I need to sit down before I collapse), wrapping time (take a normal persons average present wrapping time and multiply by five) etc etc.

It's always a nice feeling giving presents though. Or when someone doesn't ask for anything in particular but you find a present that suits them perfectly and you know they will love. Not like the presents you're not quite sure about but you just hope the person is a good liar.

- Ah, Christmas.

Jen
p.s. Also another good thing about Christmas, leaving the shopping centre and giving someone frantically driving around the 'eye' - like "I'm a walking park, follow me to the jackpot". Or seeing two people fighting over your park when you leave..thats a little bit fun too.