Walk on By

After my last post, Stuff (November 4, 2011), one would think I would never go near stores again, right? I don't take part in the Black Friday frenzy, but here in London it doesn't exist so it was safe to peruse a shop or two. After all, Christmas is coming.

The stores are decorated, crowded, and laden with tempting Christmas displays, but I was resolute. Those amusing stocking stuffers? I passed on them. They amuse for about five minutes and then the recipient has to figure out what to do with them. They end up in the back of a drawer with last year's stocking stuffers.

What about those cheery Christmas mugs decorated with happy Santas or frolicking reindeer? I've fallen under their spell before, picturing the family sitting around the tree drinking hot chocolate out of them while a picturesque snow falls outside the window.

How often do you think that has happened? Even if it does, you still have those Christmas mugs taking space in your kitchen cupboard for the other eleven months of the year.

Having said that, I know people who have sets of Christmas dishes, glasses and silverware that they bring out just for the season. I have been tempted by this. Perhaps I will succumb in the future, but not this year.

Now what about all those sparkly clothes we see in shop windows? "For all those holiday parties!" a sign tells us. I read it and I'm drawn in, though we only go to maybe three holiday parties and most people are wearing tasteful black with perhaps a splash of seasonal red. I picture some festive event where the winter white sparkling number before me would be just the thing. You never know. But I resist the temptation.

What about those adorable Christmas socks? Can you wear Santa around your ankles after December? I was once seduced by green felt elf slippers with white fur inside and three red balls on the instep. How festive! I bought a pair for each of our two then-teenage daughters. They rolled their eyes in horror, but wanting to indulge their mother in her Christmas vision, gamely wore them on Christmas Eve and morning. After that the slippers were banished to a drawer where they remained until our recent house clean-out.

The sparkly, cheery enticements of the festive season are hard to ignore, but I resisted almost all retail temptation today. My theme song was Dionne Warwick's "Walk on By."

It is easy to keep a tune in your head because most London shops are mercifully free of Christmas music. The Little Drummer Boy's incessant ba-rup-a-bum-bum can cause nerves to fray as you ponder whether buying Spanx for someone would be taken as an insult. "Silent Night" doesn't work when people are pushing you out of the way to get to the sale rack. And let's remember "O Come All Ye Faithful" wasn't written to lure people into shops.