Christmas Time

I love Christmas, a lot. I love buying people presents. I love the Christmasy smells. I love getting together with friends and family to party and open presents. I even love egg nog. This will be the second year of what I hope will become something of a tradition, the group Christmas party. We had some great times last year, and I hope we have some more wonderful memories this year, but there is one thing that's still nagging me from last year, and it touches on one of my favorite parts of this holiday. Giving presents.

We have a pretty large group of folks, and like any group this size there are people who form its core, and those who are sort of on the outer edges. We hang out together, we even consider each other friends, but we just don't see a lot of each other for one reason or another. There are also others in the group that don't mesh with everyone else, evolving into an ever changing relationship. That's great, but what does that have to do with giving presents? The problem I had last year, and even this year, is three fold.

First I don't want anyone to feel left out because they didn't get anything. With a group this size its inevitable that people get left out, and I absolutely don't want people to feel a lack of friendship, or that they aren't members of 'the group' over a silly little present. To be perfectly honest I don't even like the idea of a defined group. To me if you hang out with me or anyone I know you're a part of 'the group' and welcome over at my place for Christmas or anything else. There isn't some kind of indoctrination, or secret hand shake to get you in. This even includes the annoying guy with glasses who doesn't know when to shut up no matter what (no not me, the other one).

Second, I don't want people to feel like they HAVE to get anyone a present. I know a lot of us, myself included, are strapped for cash this year, so the notion that they might 'have' to get someone something could be pretty stressful. Get someone a present, or don't, just remember that people will appreciate a meaningful present 3 billion times more (made up statistic) then a required gift.

The last point somewhat ties in with the second, but I don't want folks to feel guilty if they got something and didn't have anything to give in return. I personally love the ambush gift. I love getting someone the perfect gift when they didn't see it coming. If you got a present from me, you got it because I thought you'd enjoy it, or put it to good use, not because I thought you'd give me something back. The only people I expect presents from are my sisters and parents.

I know I'm not alone on my feelings towards present giving but I saw a few hurt faces last year, and had enough whispered rumors fall my way that we may wish to consider some kind of Secret Santa thing. Not that I have any authority or anything, its just something I wanted to float out there, give my opinion on, and see if folks were interested.