Presents, presents and more presents

Before you start thinking that I am soliciting gifts or making an effort to further commercialize December holidays, please understand that it is not my intent to glamorize or glorify the craziness which so often consumes what should be a peaceful and meaningful occasion.

I am merely looking to urge those of you who participate in holiday gift giving to do your shopping early and with thoughtful regard for your recipients.

But before I get to that part of the My Turn this week, I would like to take a moment to say a thank you to the mystery present giver who left gifts for the editorial staff two weeks ago.

I came in Sunday evening to begin my work week again, gathering sports information and looking through photos, and found a very appropriate gift sitting on my desk waiting for me. As I looked around, I found that gifts graced each desk in our department. There was no name to hint at the giver, so, thank you for the lovely gifts.

Now, onward.

There are two kinds of holiday shoppers, in my opinion, those that shop early and those who do not. The early shoppers seem to agonize over gifts and plan ahead, trying to get just the right thing before the shelves are bare and they are left with nothing more than a dream of the ideal gift.

These shoppers are the people that make you cringe when they have their gifts wrapped and ready for delivery before the first snowfall in December.

However, I think there is an upside to this early gift mania — any indecision or the possible emergence of a better gift can be remedied before it's too late.

Late lookers, you know who you are, the gift givers who gave your wife an oil change and a set of wrenches because they were in the parts store, not because she wanted them. Or those of you who have settled for the last sweater on the shelf, even if it was two sizes too small. You tardy buyers have the unenviable task of sifting through what is left after the early shoppers have gone on their sprees.

I say to you late shoppers: shop early, shop often.

As a devoted non-shopper, I must admit that I am an early shopper for various reasons. I often fall victim to gift giving anxiety — what if I give a gift the recipient doesn't like? What if the gift doesn't fit or isn't useful to the receiver? Along with my general anxiety, I do not enjoy spending time in the occasionally rabid crowds that emerge during the holidays and do my best to wade through them quickly and quietly.

I am also an early shopper because despite my anxieties and dislikes for the shopping process, I truly enjoy giving gifts and the general sense of well-being that surfaces during the holidays — the food, the good company and so on.

To alleviate some of the pressure of finding just the right gift, some friends of mine and I have devised a way of getting gifts we want and still maintaining the surprise of presents. We all make a specific listing of things, big and small, expensive and not, and share it with each other. These lists usually involve a fair amount of items that give the shopper the ability to pick a gift that is suitable for their shopping tastes and still fulfills the desires of the recipient.

So, in acknowledgment of one of the few times during the year when there is an excuse to give gifts, big and small, I hope you each get what you most desire this holiday season and savor the time and care that went into bringing it to you.

Pam Robel is the Columbia Basin Herald's sports reporter.