I\u2019ve always been a last-minute gift shopper. The kind of person who goes down to the wire. Like the dawn of Christmas is cracking over the horizon and I\u2019m out in the shed trying to build my own 4K flatscreen TV because I waited too long to order it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe picture\u2019s a little fuzzy, but that\u2019s just WIFI issues,\u201d I tell my family as I hang a piece of hastily cut and crudely painted plywood on the living room wall. \u201cJust wait and you\u2019ll see the colors pop!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But this year, I\u2019m taking no chances. I\u2019m heeding the advice of experts, analysts and retailers who say that you can\u2019t wait to do your shopping. A host of supply-chain and shipping issues combined with parts shortages and climbing prices have managed to make things we want more scarce, and more expensive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Shoot, even if you\u2019re giving the latest in high-tech toiler paper, you might be \u2026 well \u2026 something out-of-luck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, I\u2019m pre-empting my procrastination and getting on the ball. I\u2019m buying everything I can right away. Asking for ideas early, and placing orders left and right. Box-after-box of gifts are thrown over my fence. I have a cardboard fort of delivery items stacked up in my front room. I have no idea what most of them are. My keyboard keys and mouse were flying so fast, and I was just buying at random. Anything that popped up on my screen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And I fear I\u2019ve taken it too far.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On Thanksgiving, I was perusing Black Friday sales on Amazon when I came across a rotary cutout saw. \u201cThese look handy,\u201d I said to my dad. \u201cAnd they\u2019re marked down like 40%. What do you think?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThose are great,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ve always wanted one, but never enough to actually drop the money on it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cReally?\u201d I said, and \u2026 CLICK!!!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cDone. Merry Christmas! Now I can cross you off my list. Got myself one, too. Now round up the rest of the family, send them to me in a single-file line, and let\u2019s see who else we can knock out with these prices.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was at that point that I also graduated from buying for other family members and started buying for me, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I couldn\u2019t help it! The deals over the Thanksgiving weekend were too good. It had only started as research. This thing I might need to replace. That thing to see if it was worth it. Next thing I knew, I was barraged by bargain basement prices and purchasing all of MY gifts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cGreat news,\u201d I told my wife. \u201cYour Christmas shopping problems are over. I just bought you all of my Christmas presents! How about that?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHold on a second: YOU bought ME all of YOUR presents?!?\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
YEAH! What was she not getting? I mean, this is simple Christmas math.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I explained my whole scheme. What I had been up to. How I had purchased a whole bunch of things for myself \u2013 even paid for them! \u2013 so she wouldn\u2019t have to worry about it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s really easy this way,\u201d I told her. \u201cFor instance, I say, \u2018How about you get this book for me for Christmas \u2013 which, mind you, I already bought and am planning to read as soon as it arrives in the mail\u2019 \u2013 and then you say, \u2018Merry Christmas!\u2019 Great, huh?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBut \u2026,\u201d and she had to pause to choose her words carefully. \u201cYou\u2019re just buying stuff for yourself and saying it\u2019s from me. That\u2019s not right! There\u2019s no joy or love in it. There\u2019s no thought behind it, or the giving spirit of Christmas.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOf course, there is,\u201d I told her. \u201cI\u2019ve actually thought a lot about it, and decided I want all of this stuff. Plus, because I\u2019m giving YOU something to give to ME, it\u2019s actually twice the spirit of Christmas. See?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I finally realized I had gone too far when I told her I had found a pair of slippers that she could get me, and I would even buy them if she wanted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAHHHHH!\u201d she growled. \u201cYou know, you\u2019re going to have zero surprises for Christmas this year. Zero!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBut I\u2019m outsmarting supply lines,\u201d I said. \u201cI\u2019m beating retail at its own game. I am re-writing the rules of holiday shopping. With just a couple clicks of the keyboard, the whole world may never be the same.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou are not easy to shop for as it is, Brian Thompson,\u201d she said. \u201cYou\u2019re already the type of person who buys themselves whatever they need all year and no one has anything left to give you. Now, you\u2019ve taken it a step further and started getting your own presents?!? You\u2019ve taken the joy out of giving and made it a commercial spending spree. That\u2019s it! New rule: No one buys themselves anything from October through December anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I then knew I had blown it. I saw the error in my ways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In my zeal to find deals and snag things early \u2013 to even make things easier on everyone else \u2013 I had trod all over Christmas. I had become the thing I hate: A thoughtless consumer zombie. I got caught up in the buying and the dealing, and not the spirit of giving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I was pretty ashamed, to be honest with you. (Not enough to send it all back \u2013 I mean, I DO want that rotary saw! \u2013 but I did feel pretty bad.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, I\u2019m slowing down now. Turns out there was more thought and love in that plywood flatscreen TV I built than in all the frantic clicks on a keyboard. Sure, the colors weren\u2019t as good as the real thing, but it actually captured the spirit of the actual thoughtfulness and caring. Not to mention, it beat all the shipping issues and even came at a great price.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I\u2019ve always been a last-minute gift shopper. The kind of person who goes down to the wire. Like the dawn of Christmas is cracking over the horizon and I\u2019m out in the shed trying to build my own 4K flatscreen TV because I waited too long to order it. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe picture\u2019s a little fuzzy, but that\u2019s just WIFI issues,\u201d I tell my family as I hang a piece of hastily cut and crudely painted plywood on the living room wall. \u201cJust wait and you\u2019ll see the colors pop!\u201d<\/p>\n
But this year, I\u2019m taking no chances. I\u2019m heeding the advice of experts, analysts and retailers who say that you can\u2019t wait to do your shopping. A host of supply-chain and shipping issues combined with parts shortages and climbing prices have managed to make things we want more scarce, and more expensive. <\/p>\n
Shoot, even if you\u2019re giving the latest in high-tech toiler paper, you might be \u2026 well \u2026 something out-of-luck. <\/p>\n
So, I\u2019m pre-empting my procrastination and getting on the ball. I\u2019m buying everything I can right away. Asking for ideas early, and placing orders left and right. Box-after-box of gifts are thrown over my fence. I have a cardboard fort of delivery items stacked up in my front room. I have no idea what most of them are. My keyboard keys and mouse were flying so fast, and I was just buying at random. Anything that popped up on my screen. <\/p>\n
And I fear I\u2019ve taken it too far. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[578,561,556],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2021-nutshells","category-family","category-holidays"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2330","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2330"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2330\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2331,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2330\/revisions\/2331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}