A Malkuth of Me,  thoughts

Merry Nightmare!

A friend recently mentioned she was trying to buy local as much as possible this holiday season. I kind of felt bad reading that because I’m one of those people who hates shopping. I take the easy way out and do it all online.

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy the tradition of being able to buy gifts for those I care about, I just hate shopping. I hate the fluorescent lights, the sounds, the smells, screaming children,  bustling crowds, ringing bells, Christmas music, long lines, and body filled stores. There’s something revolting about shopping. I just hate it. I always have.

Nowadays I do it all online. I can be in and out in minutes, I don’t have to drive anywhere or put up with crowds or screaming kids. No faux Xmas for me. Nope. I can sit in my comfy chair with a cup of eggnog, in the silence of home, surrounded by the scent of a pine scented Glade Plug-In (as opposed to getting a sinus migraine from being around bodies bathed in heavily scented perfumes) and enjoy my brief, annual tradition of yuletide gift giving.

It is all neatly delivered to my office, I load it into the car, unload it at home, and then spend 1-2 nights wrapping everything. Done. No slogging about in inclement weather. No driving around and around looking for a parking space. No running from store to store to find that perfect something. ::sigh:: I can’t say I miss the good old days where I had no choice but to spend weeks going to mall after mall and store after store to find what I was looking for.

Instead, I can concentrate on making cookies, watching holiday films, and spending time with loved ones. It certainly makes for a happier holiday for me. But at what cost? Does me not participating in the chaos ensure thousands of mom-and-pop local stores go out of business? Does it mean more vehicles pollute the air to ship things to me from other states?

Perhaps.  I think it’s worth it to enjoy solstice bliss, and perhaps that’s selfish of me.

How do you do your holiday shopping every year?

Steph is an award winning and bestselling author of thrilling steamy and paranormal romances, dark urban fantasy, occult horror-thrillers, cozy mysteries, contemporary romance, sword and sorcery fantasy, and books about the esoteric and Daemonolatry. A Daemonolatress and forever a resident of Smelt Isle, she is happily married and cat-mom to three pampered house cats. Her muse is a demanding sadistic Dom who often keeps her up into the wee hours of the morning. You can contact her at swordarkeereon@gmail.com

2 Comments

  • Morgan Eckstein

    Well, this year I didn’t do any Xmas shopping…because I just finished college earlier this year, and this is the “skin-of-the-teeth” quarter for my business.

    But as a writer, and former restaurant manager, it would be the height of foolishness to adapt a “local-only” shopping habit. Yes, the store is local…but where is their product coming from?! Plus, given the fact that my income comes from all over (up north, down under, and over the pond)–I was looking up monetary exchange rates yesterday in a wild attempt to figure out what next quarter’s budget looked like–isn’t it a little off if I declare that I am only going to shop locally? For me, global is the new local.

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