She had obviously spent way beyond her budget and was now worrying about what this would mean. She carried on at her partner about how they'd have to "go easy" and perhaps not buy.......
She wasn't the only one, sadly, that joyous time called Christmas had been lost somewhere between the decorations and unwanted presents.
I smiled both with pleasure and with sadness.
I can still remember the time when Christmas did mean something special and not because we got presents, but because the magic of rebirthing the year was upon us. We celebrated the birth of Christ and in a way, through that, we also found a rush of excitement as we knew longer days meant more play.
We sat down with older people in our community and listened to stories, some scary, some adventure, some true, some made up. We didn't care, we were escorted into a land of fairytale and make believe. Our imaginations bounced from pirates on open seas to mermaids, villains and highwaymen. We imagined fairyland, gnomes, elves and trolls.
We knew what happened to naughty children of any age and we didn't want the trolls to eat us.
We had reached that time when we experienced the shortest day and now we knew the fresh shoots of Spring were on their way.
I remembered spraying cones and dried fruits, berries and leaves with silver and gold paint and setting them to dry as we were given hot chocolate and cinnamon cups with a single marshmallow melting on top.
I remember getting the wire and stringing our baubles together with bits of spruce, holly and anything else still in leaf, and making garlands, loops, hoops and bells of Nature's last flush and excitedly parading them around to relatives who "oooh'd" and "aaah'd " at our handiwork, displaying them prominently in windows, hallways and on doors.
It was a time of family, of community, of laughter and fun.
Was there much money? Nope.
Were there many presents? Nope.
Did the tables groan under food? Nope.
Did we expect and petulantly stamp our feet if we didn't get what we wanted? Nope.
Did we sit around the Xbox, TV or a phone all day not interacting, playing, running about or going outside? Nope.
Did we have fun with money still in our pockets? Yep.
And most importantly we socialised.....with the community.....with the neighbours.......with our family.......
When did that get lost?
When did the Cathedrals of Retail take this period over?