The truth about Christmas
Posted on December 16, 2006
Filed Under Advertising, culture, customer service, funny ha ha, the future, winter | Comments Off
For the first time in many years, I think I ‘get’ Christmas.
I went shopping in Waterford city today and I actually enjoyed it. As a man, this is an entirely contradictory statement and, worse, being Christmas, all the shops were packed. In one shop I even had to queue up just to ask a question about an item I was thinking of buying!
Waterford’s shopping district is not that big so I went for a wander around the edges of it a couple of times. Why? Firstly, it was a really nice day. It was cold but very sunny. What struck me was the variability of the air temperature. I’d be walking down a street, eyes scrunched closed against the sun, and then once I’d turn the corner into a street were the sun wasn’t shining, the temperature would drop dramatically and I’d have to pull the collar of my jacket a bit closer around myself. Secondly, and more fundamentally, I couldn’t think of anything to buy for my family so I needed some inspiration. We’re a small family so my gifts-to-be list wasn’t that big.
To get myself into the ‘spend, spend‘ mood, I visited Sinnott’s Discs on Michael Street. As music shops go, it’s pretty crap but they do a nice line in cheap CD’s. So today, for the grand total of €38 (stg£25), I got:
– Ave Maria: Sacred Aria and Choruses (I like Choral music)
– A-Z of Opera (with a 762!! page book)
– Jazz Divas
– Ray Charles’ Rocking Chair Blues
– My Way – The best of Frank Sinatra (’46 timeless classics’)
These CD’s will never make the top 10 of anyone’s collection but they’re useful to have in your iTunes library. For this sort of money, I don’t know why anyone uses Bittorrent?
Suitably emboldened, the next stop was Sherwoods Waterford where I bought an electrical item for a family member. Forgive the vagueness but I don’t want to spoil the surprise. As I mentioned above, the shop was jammed and I had to queue just to talk to a shop assistant. After I’d decided to buy the item, we returned to the counter to swap money and receipts. As is often the case, he was hijacked by another customer and I was delayed by, oh maybe, 3 minutes. Internally, I started to get a bit annoyed but it was Christmas and all that, so I said nothing. Eventually, the transaction was completed. But…then he picked up some batteries and started peeling off the price tag. ‘Cheeky sod‘, I thought, ‘He’s going to try and make me buy batteries‘. But no! He put them in the bag, gratis, by way of apologising for delaying me by 3 minutes. Now that’s customer service! The assistant was ‘JS’ in case you ever want a good deal.
Next stop was Kellys on the Quays. It was established in 1847 and I don’t think much has changed since. They sell things that you put on your mantlepiece. Oh, and a few baseball caps and Guinness posters for the tourists. I bought something for a family member. The assistant had to go upstairs for the box but, while I was waiting, another assistant deliberately came to me to wish me ‘Many Happy Returns‘ and I didn’t know what to say! The original assistant came back with the box/present and started to wrap it in Christmas paper. ‘Cheeky sod‘, I thought, ‘I didn’t ask for it but they’re going to charge me extra for that‘. Then the second assistant joined in with the sellotape. As it turned out, they didn’t charge me for the wrapping. The gift wasn’t that expensive but they made a big fuss over me and I was very impressed. My mantlepiece is not that big so I don’t know if I’ll ever go back. Mary was the assistant’s name and I was genuinely touched by their attention to detail.
In a roundabout way, I mentioned at the start how the weak sun brightened up the sky but also, how difficult it was for the sun’s rays to warm everything and everyplace on the ground at this time of the year. Forget about the ‘Jesus is born‘ thing, I think Society, invented Christmas. I think ‘they’ decided that they would pick a time of the year when the ‘world’ was at it’s lowest,darkest point and say, ‘sod it’. Society has deliberately chosen a point in time when, against our natural instincts, we are expected to be happy in ourselves and to be nice to others as well. And I agree.
And why do I agree? Because I’ve seen the evidence! Here’s a photo of Santa doing a trial run for Christmas Day!
