Christmas Fruits

A few years ago a friend of mine went on a sabbatical. She had been reluctant to go in the first place but she needed it badly. She was afraid she was going to burn out. But she was also afraid that if she left it would rub off on her progress report. We convinced her to take some time off for herself, which she finally did.

She came back in early December all fresh and full of life. We decided to throw her a welcome back party. The office was already beginning to look like Christmas and a few early Christmas gifts had also been given out. So we decided to make it a ‘Welcome Back in Time for Christmas’ party. There would be cake and balloons and pizza and cookies. Our menu was full of variety, the weird kind. But we were all generally excited about welcoming back our friend. We had decided to give her a small Christmas gift of some kind. We weren’t looking at any big spending, some one was getting a snow globe someone thought of a ceramic angel. I was indecisive about what to get her.

We had all set a limit on what we would spend on her gift. Everything that was affordable in the budget didn’t appeal to me and I wanted her to get Unique Christmas gifts. The easy and obvious stuff was already taken. There were two other colleagues who were stuck with the same problem. Everyone else was done wrapping their Christmas Holiday gifts. The three of us decided to ‘team up’ and get her one really awesome present. Someone suggested we get her a Christmas gift basket. We were a little apprehensive about it. The woman who suggested it had a habit of gifting a baby cactus plant to new people and it seemed a bit early for Christmas gift baskets. We settled on a nice box of fruit with gourmet chocolate sauce. We got her a box with a dozen pieces and she loved it. The party made her feel like she had truly been missed.

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I remember my first Christmas after I got married. Actually I remember the days leading up to Christmas more vividly. I remember being up all night wondering what I’d get for my in-laws. The neighbors were new and I didn’t know anyone very well. I had no shopping partner. I was in the formative years of my shopping life. I worried about Christmas gifts, Christmas decoration, Christmas dinner and Christmas wrapping paper.

I still had a bit of teenage perspective on things. To me an ordinary Christmas gift was a pair of jeans and unique Christmas gifts were designer clothes. When the early Christmas holiday gifts began arriving I got a bit worried. It was mostly food like pies, cookies and Christmas gift baskets. I couldn’t make Christmas cookies and stuff back then. It’s a talent I acquired only after my children were born. As more and more early Christmas gifts began to arrive I really began to panic. I didn’t know what would make a good early Christmas gift and I had less time to shop now. I was still trying to balance my work and domestic responsibilities. But as the gifts kept pouring in for the newly weds, and I felt an increasing obligation to respond in kind, I decided to go with the old copy cat routine.

Since I couldn’t bake or cook very well, I bought Christmas baskets like the ones I had received. But I didn’t buy the ones full of coupons and mugs. I had grown tired of finding mugs with ‘Merry Christmas’ and “Newly Wed’ written on them in the gift baskets. I couldn’t inflict similar torture on anyone. I didn’t have room for one more cup. So I bought Christmas fruit baskets. They were better because everyone loves fruit, they look better than the other baskets and because it’s something to eat. I even found some baskets that came with chocolate sauce. They proved to be a very fail safe and widely liked gift.

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Around seven years ago we used to have a manager who was no joy to work for. He was the kind of guy who would breathe down your neck while you were working. On any given day of the year, he would go around and visit as many cubicles as he could. He poked annoying questions at everyone, asking them what they were doing and why they were doing it. But around Christmas time he was even worse.

A lot of people use office hours to look for Christmas gifts. and I know that’s not right but as long as the work gets done on time I don’t see what the big deal is. So in an attempt to make sure no one was buying Christmas holiday gifts during office hours, the manager appointed ‘deputies’ to help him keep a watch on everyone. These deputies were a bunch of suck-ups that monitored our online activity since we didn’t have CCTV or cruel people in the IT department. This made us unable to shop online for Christmas gifts and since we were pressed for ideas for Unique Christmas gifts we began discussing them in any spare time we got. This was unacceptable to our manager. If it weren’t for free speech and the necessity of communication, he would ban all speech in the office. Finally someone in the accounts department snapped. The guy was determined to give the manager a piece of his mind. He went to his office and yelled for fifteen minutes and was fired for ‘insubordination’.

The accounts guy said it was worth. When he came back the next day to pick up his things, his mood had changed. He knew he wasn’t getting his job back but he felt bad about yelling at someone during the Christmas holiday season. He had said a lot of things that would have hurt anybody’s feelings. So in an attempt to apologize he brought two Christmas gift baskets to the office. The big one was for all of us and the smaller one was for his now ex-boss. He also put a DVD of ‘A Christmas Carol’ with it and gave it to the boss. The effect was astonishing. He got his job back and the manger eased up about our online activities.

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I used to have a neighbor, George, who was far from light on his feet. He could snag his foot on just about anything. Around the Christmas Holiday, people would refrain from having him over because he was likely to trip on the Christmas holiday decorations and end up setting the house on fire. George knew his falling down rate was very high and he tried to take as many evasive measures as possible. When everyone gave out early Christmas Presents to the neighbors, he would place his on the porch and back away slowly and cautiously. George’s bad mortar skills made it hard on him because not only was he very friendly, he could easily be the life of any party. He was a very thoughtful person and always gave very Unique Christmas gifts.

As careful as George was, one December he fell really bad. I had just delivered a beautiful Christmas fruit basket to my neighbor and she was taking it inside. The fruit basket was big and maybe a little heavy for her. While she tried to get a good grip on it, her keys fell on the pavement. George was walking by and he ran to help her. I don’t know what it was that tripped him, but he fell and took the woman with him. The whole pavement was splattered with fruit and chocolate and the remains of a shattered ceramic container. She yelled at him for a good fifteen minutes. The Christmas fruit baskets that I sent as early Christmas gifts were one of her favorites and she had always been very excited about receiving these Christmas holiday gifts.

I felt really sorry for him. He had just been trying to help. Watching him walk back to his house covered in fruit and chocolate with such a sad look on his face was heart wrenching. But like I said, George was very thoughtful. The next day he bought an even bigger Christmas fruit basket. He was just setting it down on the woman’s porch and backing away cautiously when she came out. She saw the fruit basket and started laughing and crying at the same time. She invited him in for a cup of hot chocolate and some Christmas cookies.

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The way kids ask about their Christmas presents has changed over the years. There was a time when they would ask what they were getting for Christmas, or try and guess it. Their guesses were centered around modest things that they heard about in school. Later kids began to demand that they be told what they were getting for Christmas holiday Gifts, so they could let parents know before hand if they wanted it or not. And then there are today’s kids. They pick through the various magazines that are delivered to the house during the Christmas Holiday Season, they watch all the T.V. campaigns for toys with the utmost concentration and focus. The ones who know how to write make lists. The ones who don’t know how to write draw big circles around pictures in the magazine and yell ‘I want that!’ at the T.V. when a toy commercial is running.

There are several ways of dealing with this. One is to cancel all magazine subscriptions and pull the cable cord. But then what would my husband do while I prepare dinner? He would hover around the kitchen and that is something I can’t stand. And in all honesty I have to get Christmas Gifts for my kids and I need to get Unique Christmas Gifts ideas from somewhere.

I find holiday food a good way to pacify kids over excited about Christmas gifts. I don’t have a lot of time to bake cookies and I can’t have them eating candy canes all the time. So I give them Christmas Fruits to eat. We receive a lot of Christmas Gift baskets and I put them out for the kids. Often when they don’t feel like eating the ordinary fruit and crave something more festive, I order them a special fruit bouquet. It has fruit dipped in chocolate and they like it more than the conventional Christmas fruit. And it keeps them pacified. Apparently if you’re a kid, chocolate covered fruit means you’re getting something very special for Christmas.

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