Oh the agony. Do I join the Christmas Resistance Movement?

"You know holiday shopping is offensive and wasteful. You know Christmas "wish lists" and "gift exchanges" degrade the concept of giving. You know Christmas marketing is a scam, benefiting manufacturers, stores, and huge corporations, while driving individuals into debt. You know this annual consumer frenzy wreaks havoc on the environment, filling landfills with useless packaging and discarded gifts."

I know all this... So will I join.. or will I "cave in and go shopping."?

And, the reality is that I will cave in and go shopping, because I am too gutless! And I can't do it to my kids. Particularly when Little Ms 8 knows Santa comes every year. He finds us whereever we spend Christmas, despite the fact that she has never sat on his lap, and probably still wouldn't, even if you paid her. Funny how the older two are not about to let the cat out of the bag.. they have heard about this 'scaling down' of santa sacks thing that can happen once you let Mum know you're a cynic. They will keep Zoe believing till she's 18 if they can.

As a bit of a protest over the years I have never encouraged the writing of wishlists to Santa by the children, because I believe it engenders a too much of a 'want, want, want' ethic (Plus it took the pressure off having to succumb to buying crap that I didn't want them to have.)

I have also always scorned the writing of lists of what I want (for christmas or birthdays). If my loved ones are incapable of paying me enough interest throughout the year to pick up on some idea of some nice surprise gift.. and if I have to write down the exact details of whatever it is... then I may as well just go get it myself. I refuse to feign surprise over a present that I have all but gone and got and wrapped myself.

So, in the most outrageous display of double standards, particularly after this post, I am going to cave in to the 'tag' put out by rootietoot and then northern girl. This is a self-centred 'I WANT' letter to santa!!

Dear Santa

Well, yes, I do feel a bit of a fraud writing this to you. As Northern Girl says, there isn't anything I actually need. And there are billions of people out there who need a whole lot more than I do. I am leading a very fortunate life, and we are managing to equip ourselves with most things that we'd like, sooner or later. .. and not necessarily just because it's Christmas or a birthday. (Mind you, if the elf magic extends to dabbling in genetic modification for humans , then a housekeeping gene as Blair requests, would be top of my list. Seems there could be a few of us, so you might be able to work some miracle with a bulk order. If you can't do a new gene, then maybe a genie would do the trick!)

But.. materially speaking... these are some things I would be deliriously happy about if they appeared in my living room on Christmas morning. Slight problem with some of them, as we will be away in a holiday house.. and transporting them home might be difficult. Let's be hypotheticial then...

I'd love a new tandem that is as cool as our Co-motion triplet. A Co-motion or a Santana (a touring model rather than a road bike) would be nice. (And if you dropped it off, it would save all the hassles of getting one freighted over from the US, or some other far flung country, and if we miraculously came by one of them, we'd just give away our old tandems so as to convert someone else to the wonders of tandeming.)

I also wouldn't mind a single road bike. I've kind of got the 'go fast' bug now from riding our Santana road tandem.. and my MTB is a bit slow on the road. (I still want to do some dirt road riding... so I don't really want to get rid of my MTB!...)

While I'm talking bikes, a new bike jersey or two (maybe a cool one from Team Estrogen.. pick one that caters for larger sizes and not stick figures though!).. oh.. and I need a bike pump that will fit on my mountain bike. (Either that, or we need to put the bottle cages in a new place, and there are clever bottle cage brackets so you can stick the bottles behind your seat.)

From bike riding to camping.. we are trying to get ourselves set up to do some 4WD camping, and the next thing we need are roof bars for the landcruiser. Then one of those Thule roof pods.. And if I could get one of these Drifta kitchens, I'd think I was Christmas!

In terms of more normal requests though, like a lot of people, I'd love to upgrade my camera. My current one is only 2.1 megapixel, with 3x optical zoom.. so I'd love something better than that. Surprise me.. I'm not really technical, so too many options will just confuse me, but with more megapixels, and more zoom, I might turn into a better photographer, hey.

(There's another side of me that would like one of those really small, slim digital cameras so that I'd always have it with me, and be able to take lots of candid shots - which is really more the direction I'm destined to go with my photography...)

And if I don't deserve any of all of that.. (which I probably don't because I deserve a kick up the backside for so many reasons) well, there's always the latest book by Fiona McIntosh, or Kate Forsyth.< I've been tempted to buy them in the shops recently, but felt too guilty to do so. My conscience has a limit.

I could say chocolate and wine, but I'd really rather I didn't get tempted with all of that. It's going to be hard enough as it is. And if I want to look the part on any bike I am riding, then what I really need from you, Santa, is a magical dose of willpower so that I can tackle 2007 with a new outlook - and far less time spent sitting on my backside writing and reading blogs!!

love
Tracey. Aged 44.

TAG! dear reader (if there's any more of you!) - You're it. Your turn.

Labels: Christmas