I probably would have picked my own gift and kept the yummy chocolates. You are too classy for that crowd.

When my parents owned a store in a mall, we used to serve champagne and snacks the last few hours of the Christmas shopping rush to everyone, employees and customers and friends would show up, too.

It was fun. We were partying while busting our butts with last minute gifts sold mostly to men desperate to buy anything we could wrap up for their wives and gf's (sometimes both).

Over the past years it's been Christmas parties from my husband's job (medical field). They were all very stressful. Too much politics. We never had a good time. This year there won't even be one.