THE CHRISTMAS CROWD

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 72, 18 December 1928, Page 7 (Supplement)

THE CHRISTMAS CROWD

Shopping in Comfort

A story is told of a charity club which gave a party for little working girls. One of the philanthropic ladies who was assisting approached a group of children and offered them a plate of candies.

“Ugh!” exclaimed these poor babies, “we don’t eat that stuff. We make it.”

That is just the way the shop girl feels about Christum presents. She doesn’t give them any more. She’s sold them.

In spite of the requests, weeks prior to the holidays, the majority of shoppers leave their long lists till they are forced to suffer the discomforts and struggles of the last minute crowd, exhausted people, weary of body, drained of spirit, whose expressions seem to conv the very antithesis of Christmas feeling. Parcel-laden husbands struggle after wives whose tempers at times become actually vicious. And all over the shops one hears the wails of chile dragged out to share the merry joys of Yuletide. It is a wonder some of them retain any illusions of Santa Claus. How much better-off is the early shopper. She has the widest choice. She can wander round the counters, look into the cases and inspect everything in a comparatively leisurely way. while she avoids the disappointment of persons who having made up their minds what to buy, find on their belated arrival the stock cleared out. ■Welcomed by many and tolerated by others this annual shopping fervour is really of greater benefit than it appears at first sight. There is more in it than the spending of money and presenting of gifts. Shopping, as it is carried on at this season of the year encourages manufacturers to produce goods that are within the means of practically everyone to buy and to experiment in the matter of novelties.

The buying of gifts at Christmas brings much pleasure, very often the major portion of which accrues to the giver. Almost everyone has this feeling of benevolence which to do any good must be expressed in action. The spending of time in drawing up a list of friends and what might be acceptable presents for them will bring many happy recollections, and an unexpected gift, to the friend of the past may be the means of renewing a friendship

that has faded a little. With a little study, pocket money can be easily apportioned and when the shopper is busy with her scheme she becomes fascinated with the game. Giftmaking and purchasing is not without its humorous side. There is Aunt Sophie who after many years suddenly remembers an odd nephew and in due course John, resplendent in his first “longs” receives “The Golden Book of Nursery Rhymes,” and Dick, aged ten is overcome with the handsome silver shaving mug from that Uncle over the sea.

There are men shoppers as well as women, be it understood. They steal about counters with very vague ideas of what they want. They make a few incoherent remarks and end with a sheepish “Well, I’ll come in this afternoon.” Needless to say, they do not. The majority of the shoppers seem to be either young people or quite old ones. The middle aged are very much in the minority. Is it because Christmas loses its significance when a year ceases to be a considerable portion of one’s life, say. a sixth, seventh,, tenth, and that round about middle-age man becomes a creature of habit, living, generally an unexciting routine? The capacity for being interested in things has lost some of its force. He says sometimes that Christmas is an exploded idea and its festivities should not be encouraged.

The older man is less selfish. He recalls as Christmas approaches the joys of his early life and sees them reproduced in the frolics of the children to-day. He enters into the spirit of things, and buys presents with the rest. is man. Woman of course is the most of the multitude surging through the shops, planning happiness for children and men—even middleaged men. The majority then is still in favour of Christmas as an opportunity for the expression of the best of human feelings, except where the shop girl is concerned. So upon everyone is laid, the same injunction; "Shop