One of the hazards of holiday shopping is finding things for yourself.

I have so far purchased two items for me, two for the house and a Skeem sweet pea candle that I bought for someone else and I don’t think I can give up. Too cute by half.

A further hazard of this self-gifting is that it reduces the number of gift ideas that my husband has compiled. After his heavy sigh and look of frustration when I showed him an item that was clearly on his list, I offered to let him wrap it up because it was just what I wanted. He declined.

I promised to not buy one more thing for myself until the after Christmas sales.

This issue with the holidays comes up every year. Essentially because he goes out to buy specific pre-selected gifts, while I go out to shop and browse with a vague idea of the “theme” of what I am looking for. Clothes for this one, jewelry for that one, and so on.

I think that Shopping v Buying may be a gendered outlook. There may be men who like to shop, but I don’t know any of them.