So here it is, Dec. 15, and I have yet to purchase my first holiday gifts. Christmas is coming on Dec. 25, whether I am ready or not. Being the kind of person who hates both crowds and shopping (maybe I have a touch or agoraphobia walmartus), I really dread heading to the really big store. So I opted to purchase as many of the gifts as I can here in town, although some things simply aren’t offered here. That’s a shame in one way, but in another, it’s understandable. It takes a bigger population than we have to support a super-sized store, to be sure.

However, we do have an adequate assortment of retailers here for the task. To be honest, I decided to hold out to see if I could win the Sparta Revitalization Committee’s $1,000 giveaway. I entered once, at the bank while making a deposit. Surely between it and the single lottery ticket I bought I will have what it takes to bring home a plethora of fine Yuletide presents.

If those both fail, I can always use my paycheck this week to finance my purchases, or even my recently abused credit card. What with buying all the materials to work on the house, buying a few presents and paying a few unexpected expenses, it seems the card is always in use in December.

I have a few friends who have already exchanged gifts since they live in other cities. Some usually mail in something for the kids, while others send cards. As the family’s cards, those have yet to leave the mailbox this year. I’ve never been much on cards of any kind. It isn’t that I don’t care; I’m just not ‘with it’ enough to keep up with everyone’s birthdays or even addresses.

As for the Christmas cards, I am waiting for the last minute so I can go at it in a mad rush, thus having maximum time to worry over it prior to actually taking action. Some things should be relished, like Christmas card anxiety — the fear that someone will send you a last-minute Christmas card to whom you forgot to send a card.

I sometimes add on a name or two at random to my list, just so they can open the mail and say, “Who is this and why are they sending me a card?” However, the more usual thing is the last-minute compilation of names, which leads to the last-minute frenzy of searching for addresses and hoping we have enough stamps to send all the cards and still buy food for the week. OK, perhaps I am exaggerating a bit.

What constitutes someone being card-worthy? If I were to send a card to everyone I like, I would have to send out more than 1,000. That would cost me almost $400 just in stamps, let alone the card expense. The main way to get a card each year? Probably sending me one with a return address attached.

Every year I think, “Why don’t I gather all these addresses ahead of time and keep them to mail out the cards each year?” Sadly, I don’t think of it again until sometime the following year; usually about the time I realize I only have a few days left before I have to mail out all my Christmas cards.

In my estimation, there are probably more Christmas cards mailed each year than credit card statements and cell phone bills combined. I wish both of those would lose my address. The postal service probably depends on that income to generate enough revenue to operate, since no one writes letters to each other any more.

I’d take a letter over a Christmas card any day. Most people don’t put anything on the cards except for their names. There’s no folksy feel to them, just a mass produced “Howaya.” Some folks toss in a family photo for good measure.

Even politicians get into the act. We annually get cards at the office here from most of the local representatives, some actually go the extra mile and sign their cards, while others use a stamp or a pre-printed signiture. Can you imagine the writer’s cramp a politician might get from signing all those cards?

I wonder who started the Christmas card phenomenon? According to a Christian Web site on Christmas traditions by Ken Raggio, “The custom of Christmas cards can be traced to the year 1843 in London, England. Sir Henry Cole was the founder and director of the Victoria and Albert Museum (named after the queen and her husband). Cole had 1,000 cards designed and printed by a man named Mr John C. Horsley. The card was entitled ‘Brimming Cheer’. It pictured a family celebrating Christmas by giving gifts of clothing and food to the poor. Six years later, in 1849, an English artist, William Egley, produced a very popular card. Nowadays, hundreds of millions of Christmas cards of all shapes, sizes and colors are sent around the world.” How would you like to have paid old Henry Cole’s postage fees? And I bet those cards cost a bit more than the ones we buy today, especially with inflation figured in.

It was noted in the article that many of the cards don’t mention Jesus Christ at all. Well, that makes a lot of sense, since the holiday really has very little to do with Him these days. But there are a few folks out there, those who help the poor, visit the infirm and the prisoners, give to charity and help their neighbors in times of need or grief, who embody the true ‘Spirit’ of the holidays.

That can’t be found in a card or even recorded on a piece of paper. So where can the real thing be found? It is in the hearts of those who reach beyond their comfortable fires, outside their warm homes and past the boundaries of their own abilities to touch the life of another without a self-serving reason. But those who give with cheer couldn’t do so without those who receive with pleasure, so whether you give or receive, do so with joy. In other words, even if you physically can’t bestow a blessing; you can always be a blessing.

`Come to think of it, maybe there is more I should be concerned about than Christmas cards. On that note, I hope you and your family are blessed this Christmas season, no matter your circumstance.

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