The Quiet Desperation of Christmas Present Buying

On a scale of 1 to 10, where 1 is woefully unprepared and 10 is putting the sprouts on over a low light, how ready are you for Christmas?

Me, I’m about 2, edging 3. The Christmas cards are posted and the decorations are up, which is an improvement on this time last year when, although the decorations had been put up, no cards had yet been written.

There is a trend these days towards not sending cards. Many people prefer to make a donation to charity instead, and from next year, that is what I will be doing, although there may be a few distant and elderly relatives to whom I will still send a card. I said this last year too, but this time I mean it.

Christmas cards mainly benefit the card manufacturers and the Royal Mail. Most years I buy charity cards, but out of the twenty-odd quid I spent on them this year, I suspect that only a tiny percentage actually reached the charities concerned; far better to cut out the middleman and donate directly to the charities.

And the cost of stamps! A First Class stamp is 85p these days (the price of stamps always comes as a shock as I only buy one or two books a year before December). This year I spent over £50 on stamps, money that would be much better employed going to charity.

In these covid affected days it’s nice to receive cards from people you don’t see for months (or years) on end, as at least you know they are still alive (I know that that is terribly cynical, but sadly, it’s true). Less nice is opening a card and half a pound of glitter falling out: If I had my way, glitter would be banned from Christmas and birthday cards, it’s probably not good for the environment anyway. Any pleasure there might be in opening the cards is offset by the immediate need to get the vacuum cleaner out to clear up the mess.

There’s a lot of brinkmanship involved in Christmas card sending as well. This year you didn’t send one to Fred and Nora because they didn’t send one to you last year, when lo and behold, one turns up from them, provoking a scramble to see if there are any cards left you can send and hoping you’ve not missed the last day for posting.

So, bottom line: If you got a card from me this year you’re unlikely to get one in twelve months, and it’s nothing personal. If you didn’t get a card and you usually do, it’s lost in the post I’m afraid, although given that the cards I got the other day had about five different dates in the postmarks, it’s more likely just delayed: I imagine that the Royal Mail are under even more pressure than usual this Christmas.

When it comes to presents, my major problem is a complete lack of imagination. I don’t mind spending the money, but I have a problem with wasting it on presents bought simply ‘for the sake of it,’ or for things that people simply don’t need, or want. We have all felt that quiet desperation of browsing shops with an increasing sense of despair, trying to find a present for someone when we have no idea what they want. Just ask them what they want, you might offer. But half the time people don’t know what they want.

With more and more people downloading or streaming music and films, my old standbys of CDs and DVDs have rather gone out of the window, while online shopping and low prices enabling people to get what they want, when they want it, means that come Christmas, they have most things they need, and can’t tell you what they want. And me, I don’t even know what I want, so how does anyone else? This explains why socks, toiletries, chocolate, and alcohol feature heavily when I open my presents, but all of these things are good, because they will all get used.

Up and down the country there must be millions of pounds spent every year on presents that, once opened, rarely see the light of day again. You know the thing; stores like Debenhams used to have shelf after shelf of gifts that were overpriced novelties, bought by shoppers (including me some years, it has to be said) desperate to buy something for someone for whom they otherwise had no idea what to buy.

The sort of 'hilarious' novelty bought in desperation on Christmas Eve.

Despite (or perhaps because of) Boris Johnson’s best efforts to save it, last Christmas ended up being all but cancelled (unless you worked at 10 Downing Street). How many families up and down the country obeyed the rules and avoided visiting friends and family, only to lose loved ones to covid, meaning that this year, restrictions or not, they will have lost their last chance to see them? Johnson is at it again this year, but as someone tweeted as early as September, “Boris battles to save Christmas 2 is the sequel no one wanted.”

'Boris battles to save Xmas 2020'

'Boris battles to save Xmas - 2021, The Sequel'

We all hoped that this year would be better than 2020, our defence mechanisms couldn’t countenance it not being back to some semblance of normal, but it doesn’t look like our hopes will be fulfilled. A second covid struck Christmas makes one wonder, will it always be like this now?

News of parties in Downing Street and at other Tory locations means that should the government go beyond Plan B this Christmas, the patience of the British public will be sorely tested. Or, to put it another way, if it is announced that Christmas is cancelled again, most people will stick two fingers up and do their own thing, and who can blame them?

I shall be exercising that thing that various politicians laud the British public for having (in spite of overwhelming evidence to the contrary in many cases), and that is common sense, and will be spending Christmas accordingly.

Meanwhile, Dr Nikki Kanani, medical director of primary care for NHS England, is among those who have suggested people limit their interactions with others in the run-up to Christmas. Despite there being no legal limits on crowd sizes (although in stadiums with capacities of more than 10,000 covid passports are required), Dr Kanani advised supporters to stay away from football stadiums. People are advised to ‘prioritise events that matter to them.’ For the diehard football fan, going to the game is the event that matters to them, of course. Going to football, and Christmas with your friends and family - anything emotive in fact – doesn't always go hand in hand with common sense and pragmatism. There are no easy answers and like 2020, Christmas 2021 is going to be hard for many people.

Anyhoo, this is my last blog of 2021 so it only remains for me to wish you all as Merry Christmas as is possible, a Happy New Year, and let’s hope that things improve in 2022.