I have a confession to make. For much of my life, I was a Christmas Eve shopper. Not because I procrastinated or because I was a Scrooge, but because money was paycheck-to-paycheck, and only that last check before the holiday allowed me to buy presents. Christmas isn’t cheap, and other extra things had to come out of those prior checks—extra food supplies like flour and chocolate chips, a Christmas tree, gifts for work parties.
Every spare penny was already earmarked for something.
I was fast at it. By the time I got to the mall on Christmas Eve, I knew what I needed to buy. I’d get it done in record time, then be up until midnight or two in the morning wrapping everything. (more…)