December 8, 2003 - Shopping Bags of Christmas

This weekend the dedicated staff of edhat.com went holiday shopping. And when we returned home, all we had was a bunch of empty bags. A bah-humbug Christmas for the Ed? Not really, it was just part of our edhat Christmas shopping bag treasure hunt.  While others were looking for bargains or a present for their finicky uncle, we were collecting bags for a little photo montage.

We must admit that we had a grander vision for our montage.  We thought we could stack the bags from floor to ceiling to form a virtual Christmas tree ... a Christo kinda thing (but smaller).  Unfortunately, we had to BAG that idea when we found out that many stores did not have special Christmas bags this year! We were most surprised that Nordstom, who in the past has been big on Christmas fanfare,  did not have a bag. We had a copy of last year’s bag in the office. It’s a great festive bag with “Olive, the other reindeer” all over it. But, this year there was no Olive or Rudolph ... just a plain white bag.

The only retail stores with festive holiday bags were Macy’s, American Eagle Outfitters, Gymboree, and Robinsons-May. The Gap, Pottery Barn, and Crate and Barrel (found outside of Santa Barbara) were Christmasy, but only because they were red. Obtaining bags at these stores was as simple as asking. The only exception was Robinson-May where “for security reasons” the saleswoman could not provide us with one.  But all was not lost. On the way out of the store we raised a STINK when a salesperson attempted to spray perfume on us ... we got our bag!

Grocery stores apparently have enough on their minds these days not to worry about Christmas bags.  In past years the brown paper-or-plastic sacks would carry a message of holiday cheer.  But there is no joy in Ralphsville. The holiday bags have been struck out. Well, except for one, that is. As a record 29 edhat.com subscribers correctly noted in their daily contest entries, the picture of Two-Twig-Frosty on the left is from Trader Joe’s. To determine the winner of the day’s contest, all 29 names were stuck in a VERY LARGE SHOPPING BAG and without any bias, prejudice, or peeking, the name of EricVal was ceremoniously chosen as the contest winner.  He will receive a special HOLIDAY DECORATED Peet’s Coffee Card.

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