Something aint right

I don't know what it is but I just don't feel it.

Nothing. Nada.

Zilch.

For some reason, this year I simply have not been able to get into the Season's mood.

Maybe it's the news stations bombarding our TVs with stories of Housing Foreclosure and Suicidal Bankers instead of drunken Santas and Shopping frenzy.

Maybe it's the fact that the weather in Paris is suddenly warm and sunny like a bright autumny October day instead of gray and cold in typical Parisian December style.

Maybe it's the threat of a bombs hidden under toilets.

Maybe it's the fact that I'm not taking any days off during the holidays and therefore Christmas Day and New Year's for me just means those Thursdays I don't have to get up and put on the penguin suit.

Whatever the reason, I just aint feeling the holiday "cheer" I usually get this time of the year.

But what worries me ever more is that I get the feeling I'm not the only one...


Last weekend, Hubby and I set about in Paris trying to finish our gift shopping. We went to the usually dreaded Holiday Shopping spots (the big department stores and the underground Les Halles shopping mall) which anyone who's even been at these places during this time of the year can tell you is freaking nuts. And yet, something had changed this year.

There was no frenzy. There were not infernally crowded shops. There were no stuffy halls and sweating shoppers packed to their gills with wrapped boxes and carrier bags. There wasn't even much of a Christmas decoration thing going on and absolutely no annoying Christmas carols blasting in the overhead speakerphones.

It just felt like any other boring old weekend at the mall. Not like the very last weekend before Christmas weekend.

I myself didn't even noticed this until I realized we were shoping for Christmas gifts ourselves!!

There simply was no ambiance. No mood.

Later that day we were walking on the Rue de Rivoli. Last year, this grand avenue filled with clothing and apparel shops was packed like an ant farm and people actually spilled on to the streets (to the great dismay of passing cars and buses). This year, nada. No elbowing to get ahead, no frustrated shoppers breathing down your neck for you to move faster. No carrier bags bumping into your legs and annoyed looks from strangers when you accidently stepped on their toes. Let me rephrase that: there was no stepping on toes.

There were no crowds.

There weren't many carrier bags.

There was no ambiance.


It's sad to report and perhaps other shoppers in Paris didn't feel this and it's only my perception, but the one thing I'm sure of is that is the image that will be forever associated in my mind to the Holiday Season of 2008.


Still and for what it's worth, Merry Christmas to y'all.

Fned (the party-pooper).