For those of us who are sick of the commercialization of Christmas, it’s important to get gifts that are meaningful instead of just clogging other people’s lives with useless knickknacks or pseudo-presents (the kind you wish people would get for you, also known as the “it’s good for you” present). Usually some BC food specialty with a longer shelf life does the trick. However, having missed the majority of the locally-made fairs this time around, the malls are my last resort.

Getting decent presents at a mall requires pre-determined gift lists and blinders for blotting out the rest of the holiday glitz. Earplugs are possibly a necessity, what with the danger of encountering organized gangs of little girls carolling badly. And patience for scouting parking spots. Have the malls always been this crazy?

Perhaps I looked too harried tonight. The ladies at the Coquitlam Centre Escents gave me a gift. It started with a free sample of their lavender salt scrub. Then they changed their minds and added a dollop of skin repair butter and finally some bubble bath. There’s nothing like fancy bubble bath to cheer up the dourest shopper.

I must have glowed because even the mall Santa waved at me.