That Christmas scramble
’TWAS 10 days before Christmas and all through Geelong were two kinds of shoppers, the organised and the overwhelmed …
Christmas comes on December 25 each year. It is magical. I love Christmas.
It is where all that is good and nostalgic combine.
It is where the innocence of children is captured and held, tightly, by a community willing to keep the secret of Christmas, to protect innocence and inspire wonder. It is where generosity and giving and a sense of community flourish.
On Christmas Eve that jolly fat man in his red suit with his white beard and his hearty laugh, Ho Ho Ho’s his way into our life and for just one day makes magic real, not just for our children but through them, for all of us.
Preparing for this magical day is not in itself, magical.
Rather, my experience is that it is exhausting.
The preparations for Christmas Day for many people, start months in advance.
Each and every year, I receive an email from two friends letting me know it is 200 days until Christmas.
They send the email to wind me up — and it does.
When that email arrives the stress of Christmas descends momentarily and I feel overwhelmed by the shopping and the catering and the arguments with our youngest child about why it is not appropriate for her to wear her brother’s footy shorts to Christmas lunch with her grandparents.
For those friends however, it means that they can start, in a fiscally responsible and budgeted way, to avoid the stress of Christmas by taking advantage of the end of financial year sales to buy presents for their loved ones.
It also allows them to escape, with each moment of planning and with each purchase, to the joy of Christmas, to the moment where each of the carefully chosen presents will be unwrapped by a niece, nephew or loved one, wide-eyed and happy.
One hundred days before Christmas Day, these same two women will send me another email.
It is usually festooned with dancing Santas, swaying Christmas trees and happy elves asking politely but in a pointed way, if I have started my Christmas shopping? They know I haven’t.
Their Christmas shopping is however, already complete. They will have bought all of the gifts for their children, husband and family.
The presents will have been meticulously wrapped and placed in the secret locked cupboard awaiting Christmas Day.
They now turn their attention to the logistics of the day. They are exactly like the members of your extended family who want to decide on the menu for Christmas Day and divide up among the guests who is bringing what, in September.
They send you by text or email a list of who you are buying for in the family KK months before you hope to even start shopping. They make time to argue about the stuffing recipe for the turkey and insist on it being cooked on the day and not store bought and served cold even though they are not hosting this year.
They do all of this well before the AFL Grand Final has been played. I grudgingly admire them but am frankly overwhelmed by their efficiency.
Then pre-Christmas festivities begin. Christmas drinks, catch-ups, parties and work functions start in late October so that everyone can fit them in.
From this moment, the Christmas competency inquiry becomes part of the standard greeting, “Hi, how are you? Are you ready/organised/ looking forward to Christmas?” My answer is always a candid and by this stage somewhat guilty admission that I haven’t started, that I am delaying the inevitable, that I am a little overwhelmed by even the thought of it.
Let’s be honest, there is a lot to do. To conjure the magic of Christmas requires enormous effort.
I get there, eventually. We all do. It may not be until midnight on Christmas Eve, it may not be in a disciplined and methodical way but by the time that Santa is making his way down the chimney, and the Christmas magic truly begins my presents are wrapped, the tree is decorated, the negotiations for catering on Christmas Day are complete and my contributions have been baked (or contrary to instructions, bought) and are ready to be consumed.
With nine days until Santa arrives, be kind to yourself and to others.
If you are organised already, well done.
If not, I look forward to seeing you buzzing around the shops later at night a little frazzled, tired and overwhelmed next week.
Either way, I wish you and your family a safe and happy Christmas. Rachel Schutze is a principal of Gordon Legal, wife and mother of three. [Ed’s note: Ms Schutze is married to Corio MP Richard Marles.]