I don’t have many people on my Christmas list this year, but they all have the same answer when I ask them what they want for Christmas this year.
“I don’t know.”
For someone like me, this doesn’t help much. I don’t like going to the mall, especially this time of year when the odds of finding a parking space are roughly the same as winning the Powerball lottery.
It’s not that I don’t want to buy gifts for people. I do. I’m just not good at it. Generally, I call a couple of my mother’s friends and together we put together a list of things to get for her. One year, I waited a little late to call one of her friends.
“You’re cutting it a little close,” the friend said.
Hey, I’m a journalist. I thrive on deadline pressure.
This year, though, my mother came through. She sent my brother and me an email with two items she wanted, including the website where we could order it.
When I was a kid, answering that question was easy. The answer was usually some combination of bicycles, model trains, books, toy cars and games.
One of the most exciting times before Christmas was the arrival of the Sears Roebuck Co. Wish Book, which was a giant catalog with page after page of every manner of toy and game imaginable. It was as if Santa Claus himself had put out a catalog.
I don’t recall whether the Wish Book included clothes because no kid in his right mind is going to ask for a shirt for Christmas when there’s a Big Wheel on page 132.
Now that I’ve gotten older, I’m actually trying to get rid of junk in my house, not invite more in at Christmas time.
These days, there’s nothing that I really want and nothing that I really need. I’m very fortunate.
Still, I get asked, “What do you want for Christmas?” So, after much thought, here are a few things I’d like to find under my Christmas tree this year.
- A date with Sandra Bullock. If that can’t be arranged, I’d be willing to settle for a date with Reese Witherspoon. Or that woman who plays “Supergirl.”
- My own tropical island. I’m always a little jealous when I read about some rich person who has bought his or her own island. I think having an island of my own would be great fun. I could make all the rules for my little kingdom, and it would be a great way to avoid folks who annoy me. I simply wouldn’t allow them on my island.
- A vehicle like George Jetson had. When I was a kid watching “The Jetsons,” I always assumed that by the time I got to be my age now, we’d all be zipping around in the air in one of these vehicles instead of being stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic on I-85. Besides, how else am I going to get to my tropical island?
- I don’t want to leave Milly, the liver and white springer spaniel who lives at my house, out of the Christmas spirit. The Saks Fifth Avenue catalog – I don’t get a copy of it; I read about it in a news story – is offering a cashmere pet bed for the bargain-basement price of $499.
- A promise that Kirby Smart will deliver a bunch of wins to Athens.
- Did I mention a date with Sandra Bullock?
- And finally, a year’s worth of column ideas. That might be the best gift ever.
