Bah humbug!!!

After working retail during the Christmas season for several years now, I can appreciate how a person can get burned out, when on the "receiving side" of the register.  Normal rudeness increases exponentially at this time of the year.  Common sense just flies out the window. 

 Just how important is that gift anyway?  I can hear you saying...

 ..."I knocked an old lady down, but I got the gift!"

..."I totalled my car on the way to the Mall, but I got the gift!"

..."I maxed out my credit card, but I got the gift!"

..."I couldn't afford to donate to the Bell-ringers, because I got the gift!"

..."I didn't make the mortgage payment, but I got the gift!"

TV, radio, newsprint all screams that we should get that "special someone" the gift at all costs, but how important is the gift, if all those other variables appear.

There's an old lady that could have been hurt.  A car that should have lasted for a few more years.  A debt that didn't have to be incurred.  A charitable donation that may have bought a cup of coffee for someone who couldn't even afford that.  A house that didn't have to go in to foreclosure. 

These are all hypothetical scenarios, but they can and do happen.  Just because someone wanted to get the gift.  Couldn't/wouldn't the received be happy with just any gift?  As long as it was given with love, and care, and sincerity?  I could and would be.




 

Dead Santa

I was driving to a garage sale, in a middle-class neighborhood, when I saw my first dead santa on the ground, in front of an otherwise nicely decorated house.  Further down that same street I saw a dead snowman, and some dead elves. 

I was sure that this was the work of vandals.  That people without the Christmas spirit had indeed probably sliced open, or shot BB pellets at these poor, forlorn inflatable forms we see at Christmas.  What a way to deflate your Christmas spirit!  And this surely did not look like the kind of neighborhood that such things would take place.

Then, later that same day, I went to another garage sale, in an even  nicer neighborhood, miles away from the first "killing field."  The same thing...dead santas everywhere.  And this neighborhood even has a resident cop in their midst.  At least the squad car was parked in front of the same house, as was seen on a previous ride through.  How could we have so many vandals roaming the streets causing mischief?

Then a light bulb went off!

These inflatable santas, and snowmen, and elves, are all kept inflated due to a small air pump that they're attached to.  And to conserve electricity, the home owners are turning off the pumps during the day, hence the inflatables DEFLATE, and thus cause the seeming carnage of dead santas. 

It's still an eerie sight, but now I know the cause!