Christmas holidays are definitely over

Camilla Giannoni

S as Shopping? No, as Sale.

Christmas holidays are definitely over, colourful lights and decorations have been put away, the garland of mistletoe, holly and red berries that welcomed every person who entered the house has returned in his little box as well as the big green tree full of glittered balls that occupied the living room. Puddings, turkeys and candies disappeared from the table to end up in our hips. Finally, also

the cheerful atmosphere has been replaced by the boring everyday-life routine.

But something has remained (I am not talking about memories) and keeps encumbering our living room. Presents. Not those kind of cute, nice, useful presents of course, but the ones that are too far from our tastes, too ugly to be used in public, or just useless. People collect them through the years just to put them on some shelves and let them there forever. The problem is that as the time goes by these items can become a real danger for their owner’s health and safety, declare war against him and start the fight. In fact they won’t accept the sad destiny to which they have been condemned and they will certainly try to take their revenge and invade the house.

Considering the serious consequences that derive from this situation, why should a sane person take the risk? Wouldn’t it be easier to throw them away as soon as they enter the house?

Analysing the phenomenon a list of the possible reasons that induce people to keep them has emerged:

-          the first one is without any doubt laziness. The person who receives the gift stores it temporarily, just to put it somewhere and to have a tidy house;

-          then there is poltroonery. In this case the subject is just too scared to get rid of the object because he is afraid of the reaction that the one who gave him the item could have;

-          last ,but not least, indecision, that means the need to take some time in order to decide which would be the best thing to do with the object.

It doesn’t really matter which of this options has been chosen because the truth is that they all lead to the same conclusion, an invasion of unusable goods. When it seems there is no possibility of salvation an unexpected solution finally comes, the sale of sundries. This new tendency has developed a lot in the last year, and obtained a great success. The proceedings is simple and it can be done in different ways; through the internet, or through specialized shops. In northern European countries it is even possible to organize little markets directly at home. This method brings considerable benefits to the seller that earns money from something that otherwise would have been completely useless and bulky.