The thing I find most tricky at Christmas
is buying presents for men, or more specifically the man in my life. There is
this myth that women are mysterious, contrary and indecisive, which might
sometimes, rarely, be true. But I know one thing, at Christmas its men who
become the mysterious, and difficult ones. They never ever know what they want.
We
girls always know, we always have a pre-prepared list, with a selection of
items of varying prices, some of the with a little gold star next to them, just
to show exactly how much we want them (what, is that just me?). After all for
women, its like Rachel Barry says to Finn Hudson in the Glee Christmas special.
‘All I want for Christmas is you, and five things from this list.’
But
try to get a man to tell you what he wants, and its like getting blood from a
stone.
‘Um,
I don’t know….you know, something like…well you know. You choose.’
And
that is the principle reason that men mainly get pants for Christmas, both
figuratively and literally. Men don’t like stuff in the way that women do. They
don’t have a thing for shoes, or a love for jewellery or clothes. You know for
a fact they will take nowhere near the same pleasure in aftershave as you would
from a nice bottle of Chanel No 5.
On
my first ever Christmas with my true love, three years ago, I search high and
low to buy him two period Aubrey Beardsley prints, discovering them in
Australia in the end, and shipping them all the way here, because I’d
discreetly discovered that he loved the work of Beardsley. And he was
delighted, with them. And so touched that I’d gone to all that trouble, I score
maximum brownie points. Which was when I ran out of ideas. The next Christmas I
panic bought him a PlayStation 3, which arrived on Christmas Eve, meant that I
spent all of Christmas watching him gaming, and then by boxing day he’d gone
off it and has never touched it again. Good for our love life, bad for my
choice of gift not to mention my bank balance.
This
year I have no idea what to get him. I’ve looked at pants, and decided against
it. I’ve thought of clothes, but I notice that those three shirts I bought him
from his birthday, which he allegedly loves, are still hanging in the wardrobe
with the tags on. Its not like I can get him a Spa day, or the lovely
Christmassy romantic novel….. So here we are, literally hours away from the big
day and I’ve got him nothing, nada, zero, zilch.
Sigh,
maybe it will have to be pants after all. At least he will know, they are pants
bought with love.
Great post Scarlett - and I'm curious readers - what are YOU buying for your beloved this Christmas??
Scarlett's book The First Night of Christmas sounds delightful, blurb below:
All Lydia's ever wanted is a perfect Christmas...So when her oldest friends invite her to spend the holidays with them, it seems like a dream come true. She's been promised log fires, roasted chestnuts, her own weight in mince pies - all in a setting that looks like something out of a Christmas card. But her winter wonderland is ruined when she finds herself snowed in with her current boyfriend, her old flame and a hunky stranger. Well, three (wise) men is traditional at this time of year...
2 comments:
Ooh three wise men sound interesting!
I love buying the perfect pressie... and when i can't think of something good i feel really blah about the whole thing. hubby had a birthday last week so he used up my good idea on that (i got him an acoustic guitar cos he always picks up out daughters).
Chrissy is a mash of little things at this point and am thinking about a how to play dvd/book to go with the guitar...
Book sounds great.
I'm buying hubby a petrol hedge trimmer... I think!
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