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Present RapDecember 19, 2005 I don't celebrate any of the "winter holidays" -- well, I do observe the solstice in some small way, but it's been years since I participated in a big event, and if some friend decides to throw a New Year's Eve party I'll generally go -- but they can't be ignored completely. Among other things, I usually wind up looking after a few extra horses when the owner(s) go away. I like giving presents. I like picking them out, in a store or a catalogue -- "So-and-so would really like that." What I don't like is the convergence of present-giving in one short week in December. The pressure, the pressure! Give someone a little gift in August and it's generally a total, and delightful, surprise. Fail to produce a gift at the end of December and it's "What, did you forget me? Don't you like me anymore?" Well, it's not that bad. I'm single, non-Christian, and chronically cash-deficient, therefore I'm allowed, even expected, to be erratic. I get little presents for people I see regularly, and most of them get little presents for me. This works. I know them well enough to know what they'd like, even if it's something they haven't thought about yet. (Horse people always need something.) As a kid, I received presents from relatives I'd never met: invariably generic girl stuff, like little bottles of toilet water, lacy handkerchiefs, fancy hair clips. The generic boy stuff that my brothers got was more tempting -- or so I recall, but I can't remember what any of it was. Buying obligatory presents for people you hardly know is a drag. No wonder there's such a booming business in gift baskets, gourmet jams and jellies, cheese logs, and fruitcakes. If you don't know someone well enough to know what would delight them, the fall-back position seems to be "Spend enough to impress them." I've almost got everything wrapped, except for the few things that haven't arrived yet. (Mail order R us.) When I heated with wood, I often heard the truism: Wood warms you twice, when you cut it and when you burn it. (Stacking it is also pretty good for generating heat.) Presents ditto: they delight you when you pick them off the shelf or out of the catalogue -- "So-and-so is going to love this!" -- and again when you wrap them up. One particular present was so delightful that I bought one for myself too.
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