Well, the official day has come and gone. Christmas is over, and with it has gone all the stress and tension and anxiousness that accompanies it.
Can you tell I’m writing this column a few days before and I’m trying to convince myself that these are things that are going to happen starting on the 26th?
Because that’s what’s going on right now.
There are just a few days left to get the final preparations in place and the remaining gifts purchased (or, more accurately, created) before waking up earlier than I want to on a day off and drink (probably) too much coffee on the couch in my living room as I watch my son rip open the wrapping surrounding his gifts to joyfully explore what lies beneath.
Once again, as happens every year, I didn’t start early enough.
Every year, it seems, I tell myself that I’m going to make, rather than buy, more gifts next year. And every year, it seems, I remember, around the end of the second week in December, that’s what I wanted to do.
But so far, every year, I’ve managed to fulfill that goal. Thankfully, it’s only been a couple of years that I’ve been making things, so to “make more than last year” hasn’t been difficult until now.
The first year I think I made a cutting board for my brother and a charcuterie board for my mom. Everyone else got a purchased gift. That’s only two things. I can beat that next year, for sure.
Wait…I gave my wife a wooden mantle decoration or something. So, three.
Last year, if I remember correctly, we sent one of my cutting boards off to my wife’s parents, another to one of her sisters, my wife herself received a little wooden box, my mom got two more serving trays (she likes having people over so she can feed them) and a friend of mine got a set of coasters. We’ll call that six things, because I’m counting the two serving trays I gave my mom as one gift. I mean, I’m not going to call a set of coasters five things, after all.
And I need to keep the number down so I can beat it this year.
In 2019, thankfully, I had a few leftover things from Christmas market preparation in November, or it probably wouldn’t have happened.
This year, we sent out two sets of coasters and a charcuterie board to the various in-laws, two friends got a little wooden boxes – as did my wife, again, but hers was fancier – and I made my first picture frame for another friend.
Okay, let me count.
That’s SEVEN! Whoop whoop! HIGH FIVE!
Of course, this is Past Me saying, in the future, that these are the things I accomplished in time for them to be gifts. I hope he’s right.
Only Future Me will know.
But there’s one thing that even Past Me knows about Future Me: On or around the time you’re reading this, he’s going to be telling himself that next year he’s going to start making Christmas gifts earlier.
And then he probably won’t.
And next year he needs at least eight.
Good luck, Future Me.
Happy holidays, everyone. If you need me, I’ll be cleaning my shop.
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