Holidaze

Are the super cyber sales getting you down? Is your iPhone blowing up with last chance savings? Pre-black Friday, Black Friday, Cyber Monday. Thank goodness for Giving Tuesday, but back again on Wednesday is Black Friday, extended for yet a few more days. Ack!

Looking back to my childhood days, we were lucky enough to be commercially traumatized only by a few sources – the local newspaper, only two TV channels and the Sears Roebuck catalog. How the world has changed, but how lucky am I to remember what the holidays really meant in our household: family, friends and Christmas vacation.

Sure there were presents, but not this organized chaos of what the millennial marketing campaign has become. The pressure to be a consumer or be consumed? Hats off to them, they’re good at what they do, but I’m hitting the delete button. This only drives me closer to local stores that matter - New Seasons, Red Ridge Farms, Rain Dance Marketplace, Yamhill’s Gallery and Gifts, and many more who offer thoughtful, sustainable, local, handmade and homemade goods. Do cyber sale sites promote these gifts enough? Maybe, but I stopped looking long ago.

So, if you’re feeling the pain, stick your nose in a fresh Noble tree, light a votive candle and bring out the record player. I hear Bing Crosby calling for a White Christmas and Elvis having a Blue Christmas without you…

During this busy holiday season, I challenge you to ask yourself, “Do you celebrate the things you do have?”

Merry Christmas!  Joyeux Noël!   Frohe Weihnachten!  Mele Kalikimaka!  Meri Kirihimete!   Nollaig Chridheil!  Nizhonigo Keshmish!  Sretan Božić!  Sheng Dan Kuai Le (圣诞快乐) !