Christmas Presence?

Fortnight column ''Lady B's Musings''
by Carolanne 

What does every girl want for Christmas? A Gucci bag? Killer heels? The obligatory Touché éclat?

Or is it something more than that? 

As I leave the busy streets of London for the slightly less populated cobbles of my Scottish home, I wander round the duty free department of Heathrow,  like an Aladdin's cave,  adorned with brightly coloured and wrapped jewels from YSL & Chanel with women gawping at them in utter delight...and I ask myself...

For any modern woman...is this enough? Are these bejewelled treasures fit for a consumers dream what we want to see in our stockings come Christmas Morning? Are they enough to engage our brains and hearts as well as our feminine whims? 

Even during our double dip recession lead by the merry band of "Con Dems" do sales increase on the high street and even more online which does bewilder me, is this especially for the sneaky shopper guilty of spending denial? If its not witnessed by anyone, then  it didn't really happen?

Well, according to the UK's media, the spending curve of hard earned sterling to buy ostentatious gifts for one's significant other seems to significantly increase in the same rate over Christmas as that of the filing for divorce increases in January... No sooner has the steak pie been digested, the port imbibed and Ben Hur been viewed that the female of the species is surreptitiously trotting  down to the Lawyers to discuss divorce and on the way back signs up for her local Slimming World to lose weight for the new man that she's "just not ready to meet yet"

The Polarisation of this behaviour intrigues me no end. Do some married Britons see expensive Christmas Gifts as a  panacea for domestic bliss? Please tell me the  people who max up their credit cards in the Yuletide rush are not the same ones who line the pockets of the recession-proof  lawyers come the New Year? 

Are these behaviours linked or has Britain become a cynical society very untrusting of the spending behaviours of it's married couples? 

If these are indeed the same people, are presents seen as a replacement for love? Or a bargaining tool to buy time until January when a trial separation  seems more palatable? Are we under pressure to mimic that of "it's a wonderful life" even if we don't feel that way? Stuck to the notion that only couples can enjoy Christmas Festivities when this is simply not true... Yes it's wonderful to be in love when there's an ice rink in Hampton Court where you can frolic together and enjoy a marshmallow filled hot chocolate après skate, but how many people do you see that might happily leave their other half incapacitated and  lying on the ice whilst they hide in the maze guzzling down a mulled wine? 

With this in mind, what do I want to be present in my stocking this Christmas and Christmases to come? 

I have my note to Santa written already... I want love for myself and perhaps someday another, strength, joy, honesty, respect and truth...thus allowing myself to enjoy Christmas, whatever my relationship status may be...

...and if the place I'll be trotting to in January is Harrods, as their sale is absolutely fabulous...