Venus and Mars and The Holidays

Good morning Dinks.  It’s that time of the year again; the time when everyone is making shopping lists, searching stores to find the perfect gift and waiting in line at the grocery store with all the fixings to make the perfect meal.  Well at least that’s what I hear people do during the holidays.   As the holiday season quickly approaches I can’t help but notice the differences in how our genders think about the holidays.

Are the holidays different for men and women?

Nick and I don’t live near any family so basically it’s just the two us for the holidays and we have very different opinions on how to celebrate.  Nick thinks Christmas is for kids and since we don’t have any children he doesn’t see the point  in making a big hoopla about the whole season.  We definitely have different attitudes towards the effort we want to put into the holidays.

I think we should make the holidays as fun as possible with a Christmas tree, presents, a nice meal and lots and lots of chocolate snacks throughout the day.  However Nick doesn’t see the point since it’s just us, we aren’t doing it for anyone (like kids).  All our friends are with their families during the holidays so we usually spend Christmas day watching the NBA triple header.  I think we should make the effort to make the holidays special (even if it means we have to clean up after ourselves afterwards) because we are starting our own traditions…together.

Who does the shopping in your house?

I try to make shopping for Nick as painless as possible because I know he hates shopping.  He doesn’t mind buying, but he’s more of a get in and get out kind of guy.  Last weekend I said “OK let’s go Christmas shopping for your family.”  He response was “For what?  We don’t even know what anyone wants yet.”  The concept of spending an afternoon shopping around looking for the perfect Christmas gift is totally lost on my boyfriend.  He wants to make a list of exactly what he wants to buy, he wants to go to that one store, walk in , pick it up off the shelf, pay for the item, get out and come back home.  That’s how the man in my life shops.

Whereas I prefer to spend a night after work (not a Saturday afternoon because there are too many people) looking around to find something I think will be perfect for his mother.  His theory is, well if she just tells us what she wants it will be a lot easier for everyone.   Since we are mailing the gifts to his family we won’t get to see the excited look on their faces when they open the gifts so the element of surprise is totally lost.

What are your holiday traditions?

I absolutely love the smell of Christmas trees so we get one every year.  Even though Nick says Christmas is for kids I think he secretly likes it because regardless of what he says we celebrate with a Christmas tree and gifts every year.