Crowd control

As the countdown begins to the busiest time of the year in retail I suddenly remember how much I now dislike Christmas. Before you tune out and go off to watch the miracle on 34th street for the 1ooth time let me reassure you that this isn't going to be a big bad rant about the holiday season, not really. It's just today, on the first Sunday in December, with twenty three more shopping days to go, I found myself feeling overwhelmed in the children's section and feeling a little bit like I wanted to run away, far far way and thinking it's only getting started.

 The thing is I don't like crowds. I don't like them at all. I usually avoid Christmas shopping too close to Christmas for this reason. In fact I will often avoid being in a city close to Christmas. I don't go to really big festivals and it's all because crowds make me feel a little claustrophobic. I feel trapped and panicky and I start to get a bit annoyed at everyone and that's usually just when it takes me ten minutes to get down the street. Yet somehow I have managed to put myself in the centre of a city in one of the busiest, most child centric (aside from toyshops) places in all of Waterford and I honestly felt a little freaked as I looked out over the sea of people everywhere. 

 Now I know I will be fine. I did this last year and got through to the other side relatively unscathed and I know come January when you have one customer for most of the month I will be wishing I was back in the hub of it all. Well maybe not but I will be wishing I had a little more to do. I think it is easier to feel somewhat Christmassy when It's not forced upon you and in Kilkenny the other day I saw some poor chap who was dressed as an elf for the month of December and I thought it could be worse. I think my sarcasm would go into complete overload if I was tasked with being one of Santa's little helpers daily. 

 So I feel ill equipped to face the holiday season and think life was easier when I wasn't out on the front lines and had more money for Christmas shopping. I'm sure I'll have much Christmas spirit left by the time the big day drags round. I know I was feeling distinctly bag humbugish come 6.30 this evening as I trekked home past the Winterval stalls resenting the fact that all this extra Christmas stuff was being forced upon me. Let's end this unintentional rant before I start to channel Ebeneezer Scrooge

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