I used to pride myself by waiting until Christmas Eve to begin my Christmas shopping. In those days, of course, I was without wife or children and my siblings and parents had low expectations.
Today they probably still have low expectations but their presents are more likely to come from L.L. Bean or Orvis rather than Macy's or Gimbels (is there still a Gimbels?).
By Cyber Monday, before a single window on the Advent Calendar was opened, I had already finished my Christmas presents shopping and had moved on to the secondary shopping to make the season bright, specialty foods. Christmas breakfast from Harringtons of Vermont has become a family favorite. Chocolate from Leonidas is now ordered online since its Greenwich Avenue store closed.
My family has also adopted Cyber Christmas to varying degrees. My daughters easily switched to shopping by laptop, although one of my daughters also loves cruising the mall (perhaps to reconnect to childhood memories of visiting Santa in the '90s). My wife is easing into the new age by occasionally asking me to order something from Amazon (spoiler alert: her gift of choice these days is "The Swerve" by Stephen Greenblatt).
Every day it seems a new package arrives. They are stacking up in the front hall waiting to be claimed by the giver and wrapped on Christmas Eve. That's another tradition necessitated by procrastination.
I still shop on Christmas Eve. I start at the top of Greenwich Avenue and patronize many local merchants as i make my way down to Railroad Avenue. There are mandatory stops at Gingerman (for Xmas cheer), Black Forest Bakery (for stollen and a melt away coffee cake), Meli Melo (for pate or a bouche noel), Le Wine Shop (for fine Bordeaux) and Diane's Books (there's always a bag of Diane's books under our tree).
Time to go on iTunes and download some Christmas Carols. "it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas..."
