Procrastinating the Present: Shopping on Christmas Eve

By Michael H. on December 30, 2011

The blinds were open just enough that the sunlight woke me up before my alarm clock could. In my bleary-eyed state I managed to pull myself out of bed and make it to the bathroom, where I rubbed my feet on the fluffy carpet before laying down on it and passing out for another hour.

Photo by oatsy40 on flickr.com

I finally found my way to my feet and shuffled back down the hall to my room to get dressed, completely avoiding the shower. (Clearly my attempt to shower was being thwarted by the carpet and therefore futile.) I threw my clothes on and made my way to my car, where I proceeded to a nearby mall.

The sheer number of people at the mall on any given Christmas eve is impressive. It easily surpasses the number that find their way there on any ordinary weekend. The added benefit of shared procrastination creates a quasi-comraderie between the customers. Everyone was exceedingly friendly and wishing one another a merry Christmas, which contrasted greatly with the images that danced around my head (before getting there) of a dull frenzy with equally panic-stricken individuals trying to remedy whatever problems they’ve brought upon themselves this holiday season.

I made my way into the bookstore only to be suitable impressive with the crowd that had formed there. In the era of NOOK this and Kindle that, I’ve never seen that many people inside of a bookstore. It almost made me proud. However, I was still in a hurry to find a book for my significant other. (I went with one of the illustrated Shel Silverstein poems, for anyone wondering.) The poem came in two parts, and unfortunately I could only get the first part, which had an unfortunately depressing ending and wasn’t really the kind of message that I wanted to convey with this particular gift. However, I still purchased the book, hoping that I would be able to find my way to another bookstore that had the second half.

I started my adventure by searching the mall. I looked at all the smaller specialty shops that claimed to have books (none of which did) and even briefly window shopped for other potential gift ideas since my brother was also lacking a gift. To make matters worse, I had finally given up my search when I only had an hour until my family was hosting dinner and the annual gift giving.

In a last minute decision, I drove 45 minutes to the next large city without putting too much thought into it. About half way there, I decided the appropriate decision would have been to call them ahead of time. Having done this, I found out that the chain there also didn’t have a copy of the book. However, I knew of another large bookstore (though I wasn’t sure of the name) in the vicinity of the other store that I could make it to.

I arrived with 15 minutes on the clock until my family was starting dinner. Upon entering the store, I quickly found the book (one of only two copies) and made my way towards the door. The register was crowded, and it took a while to get through the line. (This is one of the few times where I would have appreciated a less personal cashier.)

At this point it was down to two minutes until my family was starting dinner, and still a 45 minute drive back. I hopped in the car and started driving, albeit slightly faster than I should have.

Thankfully my family usually runs late, so my procrastination didn’t end up being an issue since they started dinner an hour late. My brother even forgave me for not having ordered his gift yet, though I couldn’t feel too bad considering that his girlfriend hadn’t done so either.

All-in-all, I suggest never procrastinating on your acquisition of gifts for the holidays. However, if you end up in this kind of a sticky situation, just take a deep breath and do things one at a time. People are usually more accommodating in the holiday season, and you can probably get away with a little tardiness here and there. (Though, this comes from someone who’s consistently late, so take my words with a grain of salt.)

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