In 2010 I wrote a blog post called A Season of Light, A Season of Stress. It was about all the work that women do to make Christmas the epic event that it is. Three years later nothing has changed in my life regarding Christmas preparations, and on top of it, I have just planned a 14-day vacation to the west coast and Hawaii for 4 people.
The good news is that 1) I’m not teaching anymore so I don’t have to spend a weekend of my pre-holiday time grading papers and 2) I am still childfree, which I know is a significant stress reducer at this time of year. All of my friends and relatives with children keep complaining that their kids are nutty this time of year.
The bad news is that on top of the holiday and pre-vacation stress, this peri-menopausal woman has been hormonal, raging, and downright crazy. I am fortunate that I have a partner who just listens when I freak out on him about how I have done ALL the Christmas shopping, the baking, the wrapping; how I have done ALL the trip preparations for our vacation and how he has done NOTHING, absolutely fucking nothing. I think I might have literally used those words last weekend.
I am partly to blame, this year, for his helplessness. I bought him the corvette of his dreams in October and that is all he now thinks about. He goes into the garage and sits in it, now that he can’t drive it because of the snow and salt. See the video I took for proof: Blue Corvette. But, come on! It’s been two months now!
Multi-tasking is just the way of the world for us women. While writing this blog I checked my work email, called and ordered oil, and am about to call to find out why I didn’t get some gifts I ordered, even though it says they were delivered . . . it doesn’t stop.
I fell at work on Tuesday, on black ice, on my way to the gym. I cracked my head into the pavement and woke up yesterday with severe neck spasms and had to go to two different doctors for help. All in the midst of trying to get ready for this one holiday where we shower people with gifts. Jeff and I don’t buy presents for each other; it’s just not worth the time or the money.
So what is a gal to do? How do we stop this endless cycle of shopping, wrapping, baking, prepping from solely falling on our shoulders? I know there are good men out there who have a much more egalitarian approach to Christmas, but you are few and far between. I just wish there was another way to celebrate this holiday, to find some meaning in it away from the hustle.
Don’t get me wrong; I love buying gifts for people. I think I found some really cool stuff this year, but it’s just too much. And above all, I just hate being the Christmas bitch.
The Feminist Critic 