That's not the Herald Angels you hear singing. It's more likely to be the television set. And it's not "glory to the newborn King," either. Instead, it's a raucous invitation to shop, buy and consume.
Yes, it's that time of year again. Friday was the traditional opening of the Christmas Shopping Season here. CNN and other stations showed scenes of Christmas shoppers in their natural habitat.
We saw shopping carts rocketing through space as folks who had waited all night roared through store doors for early morning sale day openings. We witnessed elbows flashing and tempers flaring as shoppers in other stores fought over prized goods. It's not exactly the sort of behavior you'd want to connect with a celebration of the birth of the Prince of Peace, but it does seem to be part of the way we celebrate Christmas in the US.
You can also count on endless and often conflicting reports on how much folks are out there buying this year. "God rest ye, merry merchants, may ye make the Yuletide pay" as Tom Lehrer once suggested.
And one more thing, you'll be seeing a ton of newspaper articles and TV news stories about how the Holiday Season is so stressful. You'll find how it leads to increases in suicides, divorces, depression, and halitosis. All true, but we don't change much how we handle it.
One definition of "madness" that I've heard is "persisting in the same behavior but expecting a different result." The fact, for most of us, is that if we want to make the Holiday Season more joyful, less stressful, and more love-filled, we'll have to do some things differently than we have in the past.
This year, the rule for me is "less musts, more time." I'm working on remembering that I don't have to go to all the parties, send cards to everyone I've ever known since grade school or buy perfect presents for thousands of folks.
I'm also looking for ways to spend time with people that matter to me. Tonight, the Most Beautiful Woman in the World and I will go out and get our Christmas tree. That gives us time together and time to decorate the tree well before Christmas Eve.
That in itself will be a relief. In years past, a good part of the Christmas ritual involved setting up the tree on Christmas Eve, to the accompaniment of much creative Anglo-Saxon phraseology. The exercise usually involved much cursing and cutting and concluded with the impalement of the Angel on the top of the tree that never quite looked the way I had imagined it.
So, tonight it's out to get the tree. But that's one of very few trips I'm going to make out to the stores shopping this year. Like about a third of Americans, I'm going to do a lot of my shopping online.
Last year about a quarter of Americans shopped online during the Holiday Season. 96% of those will be returning, along with a host of new shoppers. And they're going to spend about 50% more online than they did last year, even though almost half of the folks who shopped online last year had problems. So there must be a pretty good reason for them to come back.
"Convenience" is the big reason. You can shop when you want to. You can shop in your pajamas or sweats. But there's more to convenience.
You don't have to drive in holiday traffic around the stores. You don't have to fight for those coveted holiday parking places. Unless you have your own, in-home version, you also won't have to deal with screaming, tired kids, surly clerks and rude, aggressive shoppers. Sounds like paradise, huh?
Well, it is, in a way. But you still need to do a few things to make your shopping experience the best it can be. Here are some of my ideas on what to do.
Avoid the crowds. Yep, there are crowds online, too. You can avoid them by not shopping in those evening hours when other folks sit down in front of the computer to shop. Instead, try going into work a little late, or leaving a little early and shopping then. If you're a boss, consider giving your folks designated time at work to shop online.
You should try to minimize the hassles of online shopping. You do that by avoiding sites where problems are more likely. In the past there have been two significant kinds of problems.
The first is shopping websites that don't work right or that are so badly designed that they make a shopping session feel like a chat with Torquemada. No matter how good the goods, if the experience is bad, leave it and go on. You wouldn't put up with a lousy experience in the store. Don't do that online either. Or, if you would put up with an awful experience in the store, re-evaluate your behavior.
The second big problem area is delivery of the goods on time. Stores call this "fulfillment." Web stores haven't been real good at it. The businesses that do it best are run by folks who've had catalog operations in the past. That includes stores like Land's End and Sharper Image, but also stores like Penney's.
I suggest avoiding online-only merchants that haven't been around for at least one Holiday Shopping season. They might have got all the fulfillment things worked out, but why be the lab animal they get to test their system on?
Use the web to do research on what you're thinking about buying. There is a wealth of knowledge out there about just about every product you can name. Remember that the web can help you find special gifts from places like museum shops or art galleries or special crafts that you couldn't find locally. And that can expand dramatically the range of possible "great gifts." And the web can help you make wise selections of even common gifts.
If you're buying books or CD's for someone, for example, you probably have an idea of what they already own. If you do, head off to a site like Amazon.com. Punch in the names of some of the stuff you know they have and see what comes up when the site tells you "People who bought this also bought ..."
I learned that trick from my son, Dave. Last year he found a great book on mapping the civil war for me by using that very method.
Of course, the ideal would be if those folks you're shopping for could tell you exactly what they want. Of course, they can with "wish lists," but those are a pain to make and distribute and you never know if Aunt Dot bought that same CD you're thinking of.
That brings me to one of the great things about shopping using the web. There are gift registries on the web that can make your shopping easier and increase the odds that you select a great gift.
In theory they work just like the bridal or baby registries that department stores have. The potential recipient lists what they want. Folks can check the registry to see the list and what's left.
I've got three kids to buy presents for. Not one lives near me. Two live on the West Coast of the US. One lives in Germany with her husband and my grandsons. No matter how much we talk on the phone or exchange messages, it's hard to know them well enough to pick just the right gift.
Gift registries to the rescue. There are two basic kinds of online gift registries. Some are at sites like Amazon and Yahoo, that also sell the things you may want to buy. Others are special, stand-alone registry sites.
Some of the sites also have a "gift suggestion" feature that can help you decide what to buy. Their effectiveness varies a lot, but they're always a source of ideas you probably wouldn't have thought of.
I've included a list of online gift registries in the Sites of the Week area below. There's no endorsement here. I've used the Amazon and Yahoo registries, but I've only found the others. You get to check them out.
Less musts. More time. That's what this online shopping can help give me, and you, too. But time for what?
For me, as a Christian, Christmas is important as the birth of Jesus Christ. For me, as a Lutheran Christian, the time of preparation leading up to Christmas, the Season of Advent, is important as a time of reflection and preparation. I seek more time for that.
Ultimately, there is only one must. It is the must to share the love God has given me with people. Other musts can be reduced so I can take the time to love and to share.
Less musts. More time.
This feature appeared on 27 November 2000
