I walked into Sam’s Club two days ago to buy a present for Caleb. On a special display table they were selling “one time only” items. These are items that Sam’s doesn’t usually carry, but for one time only they’re available. One of the items they were offering was a black, 30GB Ipod. They were selling it for $289, instead of the usual $299.

At one time, I was considering buying a 4 GB Nano, but then I got to looking at the new 30 GB Ipod and decided that for only 50 dollars more I could buy 26 more GB’s and be able to play video. I’ve been accumulating gifts certificates from Amazon for about a year now and I plan on using them to buy the 30 GB Ipod when the time is right. Now is definitely not the right time.

Even though I had no intention of buying one, I asked the guy running the display table how many they had in stock, because I knew that Ipod’s are pretty hard to come by right now. When he told me that he had only two left, I was overwhelmed with the urge to buy one. There was something about the idea of getting one of the last two they had and getting a $10 discount that I found irresistible. Never mind that Sam’s wouldn’t take my Amazon gift certificates and that a $10 dollar discount on a $300 item isn’t much to blog about.

I called Heather and jokingly told her about it, hoping she would say, “Why don’t you go ahead and get it!” but she didn’t. I then walked to the back of the store and found the toy I was looking for, grabbed it, and then spent about five minutes circling the “one time only” table, all the while doing my best to look interested in everything but the Ipod. Finally, I manfully made my way to the check out line, paid for Caleb’s toy, and walked to my car–sans the Ipod.

I can’t believe how hard it was. The consumer urge is unreal this time of year. Two days later, I’m really glad that I didn’t buy it. I’m even more glad that when I went back into Sam’s today, they had sold their last two Ipods.

The other day I heard this jingle on the radio:

We wish you a happy holiday
We wish you a happy holiday
We wish you a happy holiday
And a happy new year.

I thought it sounded absurd. Almost as ridiculous as calling a Christmas tree a “Holiday” tree.

Besides, if we’re going to change some words in “We Wish You a Merry Christmas,” let’s change the line about “figgie pudding.” I don’t think most people know what it is and I’m not sure I want anybody bringing me some.

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So Christians are boycotting certain businesses depending on what kind of signs they have hanging out in front of their stores. A boycott has always been an effective means of applying pressure to those who won’t say what we want them to about our God. Didn’t the Romans use it against the Christian and Jewish merchants who refused to hang a banner in front of their store that said, “Caesar is Lord.”