Last week, I got my first "holiday" catalog. I put holiday in quotes because it's just ridiculously early to be getting a catalog that refers to a holiday in December.
Today, I picked up my mail again. Two days' worth of mail - Monday and Tuesday. In the mail was nine catalogs. Nine! In two days. Now, I do buy quite a bit online - which equates to catalogs for each site. But just because I buy online doesn't mean that I want the catalogs. I don't even look at most of them. I put them right into the recycling bin. And feel guilty that I even got them in the first place. Though I have no idea how to stop them. A few sites offer the option of refusing the catalogs, but most only often the option to ask for the catalogs. Hmm...
The volume of catalogs will increase as the months pass and we get closer to Christmas. At some point, it becomes even more insane. As I have a relatively small mailbox, it will be a challenge for the mailman to get them all in.
The other challenge for the mailman is the number of solicitations. They too are increasing as the season for giving nears. Every year, I pick a handful of charities to which I donate at the end of the year. As a result, I am on many lists for charities and other organizations, much as I am on the lists of many retail stores.
In many ways, I resent the solicitations more than the catalogs. Like the catalogs, the solicitations go straight into the recycling bin. I don't open them. But unlike the catalogs, most of which are for stores at which I shop regularly, many of the solicitations come from charities to whom I haven't donated in years. And yet I still hear from them routinely, and even more in fall and early winter. Including at least one that said if I donated once, I'd never get another donation request. Yeah, right.
In general, I enjoy the holiday season. But the catalogs and solicitations don't add to the enjoyment. Three more months at least. Lovely.
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