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The weight of Christmas presents and a reflection on Christmases past.

This week I’ve been traipsing through shop after shop with my eyes peeled to see if I can spot items which qualify as worthy candidates for Christmas presents. I must say that yesterday I almost gave up under the pressure. There is such pressure! Not from those I am buying presents for, most of them don’t even have a wish list, but from society. There is such pressure to buy more, buy better, and buy more expensive. It almost gets a bit much sometimes. I suddenly realized that presents are probably one of the main stresses of Christmas. What do you buy for people who have everything, and who if they need something simply go out and buy it? I mean there is a limit to how much you can spend in an attempt to upgrade whatever electronic gadget they last acquired. And with all of this on my shoulders I almost wish we could just forget about the presents. Don’t get me wrong, I like both getting and giving presents, but it’s just a bit much. And it totally takes the focus away from the real reason why we celebrate Christmas.

Sat here I reflect on the past two years when I’ve spent this wonderful (I do like the Christmas season) time of year in Fortaleza, among the palm trees, and among less present-pressure (as in pressure to buy presents, not pressure in the now).

The first year I remember going out on Christmas Eve to the local corner shop (which was actually a 10 minute drive away), where I bought some chocolate which I wrapped and placed under our plastic Christmas tree on the farm, so that the boys would have at least one Christmas present. They were so grateful, bless them, and many of them saved the chocolate to give to their families later. And I remember Christmas Eve having to (pray for multiplication!) make one turkey feed 30 people for Christmas dinner. It went all right and I think everyone went away satisfied, but I so wished I’d been able to give more to them.

Last year there was more abundance, and I remember us cooking up a huge banquet of a meal for Christmas Eve dinner and having everyone who wanted to come to the farm, where we all squashed ourselves together around a big table ready to dig in to the feast which we’d spent the whole day preparing. We had lots of different meats and salads and varying accompaniments, I think amidst the uncertainty of how many we were actually cooking for, we went a bit overboard. But it was so lovely to be able offer a feast fit for a king as we celebrated the birth of the King.

Which takes us to this year. The presents are bought, and even if I still have this sense in my stomach that I haven’t bought enough and spent enough, I refuse to bow under the pressure. I guess I could have gone for the more “people friendly” gifts, such a giving a donation to come charitable cause, but to be quite honest I left it too long, and now it’s a bit late.

So, I think (as I always think when I come to this time of year) that I will start my Christmas shopping in January next year. And till them I will try to leave the pressure behind me and enjoy being close to family at this family time of the year.

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