Procrastination has some value

Saying no to Christmas on Thanksgiving

Last month I wrote about my inability to plan early for Thanksgiving, dodging pressure from family members to make decisions in early September on who will host the holiday. Now, with little time to spare, we have worked out an imperfect solution. We’ve settled on celebrating separately with our immediate family. My three grown children and their significant others, and of course my baby granddaughter, will celebrate at my house.

Our extended family has reluctantly agreed that we will host separate Thanksgiving dinners, but will make up for it with a boisterous get together on Christmas.

So, just when I thought the difficult holiday decisions were all ironed out, my oldest daughter threw a wrench into everything. She suggested that our immediate family exchange Christmas gifts on Thanksgiving.

She mentioned this so casually over the phone it hardly sounded like an earth shattering pronouncement that bordered on heresy. Which, I’m sorry, but I think it was. To my mind, it smacks of something treasonous, a holiday abduction of sorts, not unlike decisions made by some stores to open Black Friday shopping on Thanksgiving Day.

I’m a firm believer in having one holiday at a time. And I’ll be honest, that belief is not borne out of a strong traditionalism. It’s just that my nerves can’t really tolerate a multiplicity of celebrations on a single day.

My daughters both cooked up plans for a Christmas-on-Thanksgiving mutiny because my younger daughter will be in Ireland in December attending a wedding. She won’t be home for the holidays and will therefore miss the first Christmas of Evie, our youngest family member and her adored niece.

Both my daughters liked the idea of exchanging gifts on Thanksgiving. And while I’m often willing to go along with novel ideas, I had no qualms about squashing this one.

“No,” I said flatly. “We’re not doing that.”

Listen, I find the whole holiday timeline to be rather tight as it is. There’s scarcely a month between Thanksgiving and Christmas, and during that time I am expected to shop, bake, decorate and be merry. Merry, for heaven’s sakes! I’m not good at any of those things.

And I’m especially bad at Christmas shopping. This partly because my Christmas list is chock full of people who don’t really need anything. So, I can never figure out what to buy.

But my real problem is that, well, I tend to procrastinate. I recognize this as a personal flaw. However, all attempts to correct it have thus far failed. In truth, I prefer procrastination over the extended suffering of spending six months — or even three — shopping for Christmas presents.

Anyway, unlike many of my friends, and even my own family, I don’t feel motivated to go Christmas shopping in July. A week be--

fore? I’m completely motivated.

There are pros and cons to this behavior. On the plus side, I get all my shopping done pretty quickly. The downside, though, is that, well, I absolutely have to get my shopping done quickly. There’s not a lot of time for perusing the shops.

But, for better or for worse, I’ve come to accept this aspect of my personality. Therefore, there’s not a remote chance that I’d be able to compress Christmas and Thanksgiving into a single feasting, gift giving extravaganza.

I remained calm when my daughters tried to talk me into it. I sympathized with their plight. But I explained that I just don’t see the need to rush into Christmas a month early.

“I have a better solution,” I told my younger daughter. “You go to Ireland, and we’ll celebrate Christmas here with our extended family. Then we’ll celebrate a second time when you get back in January.”

She breathed a sigh of relief. Because like me, she can see the value in procrastination. Laura Catalano is a freelance writer whose work has appeared in books, magazines and newspapers. She is a frequent contributor to Digital First Media.