I am unapologetically something of a Grinch or Scrooge around Christmas. The actual holiday doesn’t bother me and I try to celebrate it both from a secular and religious standpoint. After all, what better excuse am I going to get to buy cool stuff for the kids?
No, it’s the Christmas Season that I loathe, or really the whole generic Holiday Season that ramps up in October and doesn’t end until January. I just tend to single out Christmas since that is the holiday everything seems to be geared for. The constant sales, increased traffic, and crowds of people at the store does nothing for me. In 2007, before the economy went belly up, the mall was so crowded that I had to find a different route home to avoid it on Fridays. How crazy is it that malls get so crowded that you get the effect without actually going to one?
However, the Season of Jason O takes hold after Christmas. The first is the immediate post Christmas sales and I am usually flush with cash and gift cards. Then a series of sales in February followed by predictable permanent price drops for many games in March and April. The four months after December are my most prolific buying times of the year and I try to make the most of them since I know game companies are still stridently clinging to their increasingly failing and antiquated business model and will release nothing for the bored gamers of summer. (Note to publishers: I’ll say it before and say it again, I get the same paycheck all year!)
With Christmas finally behind us, I am looking forward to my favorite gaming time of the year.