Yeah.  I know.  I’m really supposed to “get into the spirit” or something.  Sing some Christmas carols, enjoy the parties, shop ’til I drop and really rejoice in the miracle of the season.  For some reason, I just want to run away and come back sometime in February.

I just can’t get into because of:

The Weather

It’s cold but not too cold.  It’s rainy and sleety and it gets dark real early. When it does snow it doesn’t really snow that much (like a couple of days ago) but people get crazy.  The grocery stores are jammed with people trying to “stock up” in case it really snows, oh, maybe 3 or 4 inches and everything comes to a grinding halt.  In the meantime, drivers are skidding everywhere.  Cars in the ditches and medians.  It’s a real mess.

The Stores

Every year, everyone I know tells me they’re going to shop early and get things out of the way.  Well, that might be OK for the few people I know but for the thousands I don’t — they’re in the stores.  That means lots of traffic, jammed parking lots and all those people who are supposed to be “in the spirit” are surly and stressed. It ain’t no fun.  The only good part about the recession is that there are fewer people shopping and the stores are in panic mode to sell stuff so the prices are good.

Luckily, I don’t have a ton of people to buy for.  There’s my wife.  Who knows what to get her?  Once we get to our age, we have just about everything and, besides, we should be saving money for retirement or something.  My wife, on the other hand has a huge family and they all choose Christmas as the time to get together.  That means the “gift exchange”.  Racking my brain for what to get that one or two of about 15 people might enjoy and keep or appreciate.  Remember, it’s an exchange and in my wife’s family it’s kind of a pot luck thing.  You bring a gift worth about $15 to $20 and it turns into a kind of lottery.

By the way, if you ever wondered if you might be better off saving your money or maybe just giving cold, hard cash, here’s a great little stuffing stocker of a book you could give away that may help you get off the hook next year — Scroogenomics: Why You Shouldn’t Buy Presents for the Holidays.

The Family

Speaking of the family.  I come from a very small one.  So I’m not used to having dinner for twenty.  Plus, let’s be honest, not everyone gets along with everyone else and there are the inevitable “conversations” about any number of family specific things.  Of course, as much as my wife would like to think that I’m ‘really part of the family”, the truth is, I’m not.  I’m an outsider that just happened to marry one of the siblings.

Then there’s the big dinner and get together and gift opening and so on.  The whole ordeal starts about 1:00 and goes to close to 11:00 that night with an hour ride back home.  Wheeeeee!

The Parties

Here’s a confession for you.  I put down the bottle many years ago because I couldn’t hold my liquor.  But if there was anytime of the year that people like to drink, encourage others to drink and have booze everywhere you look, it’s the December holiday season.  In addition to all the booze, there are the parties with so much food (which, of course, you really can’t let go to waste) and so many people and so much loud music….  Well, you get the picture.  It’s just not my thing but, of course, I go to them.

The Business

Unless the planets have moved into alignment and you had been working with some pretty motivated clients (buy side or sell side) this is the time of year there aren’t too many people buying or selling homes.  Sure.  If the house is already on the market, it stays there.  There may be a chance that some home buyer who needs to get something pretty quickly will want to make the purchase.  Vacant homes are big sellers this time of year!  Most people have the Holidays on their mind and don’t really want to go out in the traffic and the weather.  They have their own thing to do.

So, yeah. I’m not big on Christmas or even New Year’s.  I like Easter.  It means Spring is in the air and it’ll be warmer and lighter later in the evening.  Plus, I have a thing for chocolate bunnies.