New Year's Presents for All
Dec. 17th, 2007 12:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ellenkushnerFeeling the strain? Consider this:
I was a young teenager obsessed with the Tudor court (Henry VIII and his brood). In one of those "Young Elizabeth" books, she made a New Year's present for her father (or maybe it was for Catherine Parr. Or both). Eureka! I had found it. Not only is it Tudor, it's Traditional. Back before the Christmas Rush, there was New Year's. Wassail! Tumblers! Hand-sewn slippers, and maybe a Greek translation!
And no Little Baby Jesus.
Giving New Year's presents is cool. It's secular & ecumenical. It allows you to avoid shopping with the panicked crowds. (My dad, who grew up in the Bronx, claims he used to go down to Macy's on Christmas Eve, just to watch the scrimmage.) And it allows you to cash in on the fact that after Dec. 24 at 11:59 pm, prices on everything suddenly, magically, drop. And it means you get presents at precisely the time that post-holiday depression would otherwise be setting in.
So if you're wondering where the hell my card is already, or why I seemed to be ignoring you at Chanukah, take heart.
There are 16 shopping (and mailing) days 'til New Year's.
I was a young teenager obsessed with the Tudor court (Henry VIII and his brood). In one of those "Young Elizabeth" books, she made a New Year's present for her father (or maybe it was for Catherine Parr. Or both). Eureka! I had found it. Not only is it Tudor, it's Traditional. Back before the Christmas Rush, there was New Year's. Wassail! Tumblers! Hand-sewn slippers, and maybe a Greek translation!
And no Little Baby Jesus.
Giving New Year's presents is cool. It's secular & ecumenical. It allows you to avoid shopping with the panicked crowds. (My dad, who grew up in the Bronx, claims he used to go down to Macy's on Christmas Eve, just to watch the scrimmage.) And it allows you to cash in on the fact that after Dec. 24 at 11:59 pm, prices on everything suddenly, magically, drop. And it means you get presents at precisely the time that post-holiday depression would otherwise be setting in.
So if you're wondering where the hell my card is already, or why I seemed to be ignoring you at Chanukah, take heart.
There are 16 shopping (and mailing) days 'til New Year's.