If human nature were not what it is, the holiday season might not be one of rush and worry over what to buy, and sales forces in stores would not be rushed to exhaustion in the two or three weeks before the event. If people did their shopping when it could be done under the least congested conditions, it might extend over months instead of weeks, and it would not be less seasonable.
However, none but the exceptional person thinks of doing shopping until it cannot be put off longer. Then it becomes an ordeal and is so strenuous that it tends to rob the season of the “cheer and good will” that attach to it sentimentally. The “good will” might actually prevade the shoppers were they not overworked trying to find what they want and struggling to get it. Yet it would not be holiday for a lot of people were it otherwise. They have become so accustomed to waiting and then making a hurry-up job of it that they would not feel right were it done betimes.
Human nature is a peculiar thing despite the fact that all of us have it. It wouldn’t be human nature if it weren’t odd. If we did everything in a reasonable and sane way we would not be human beings. We would be super-human and that is too much to expect. It is the prerogative of human beings to do as they please and, of course, most of us please to delay as long as we can the doing of what we cannot avoid. There may be those who are forehanded in holiday shopping but they are rare and so different from the mass that they are odd, too.
By the way, we must do our shopping pretty soon.
