We like the quote from Ayn Rand that capitulates Christmas for us:
"The best aspect of Christmas is that Christmas has been commercialized. The gift buying stimulates an enormous outpouring of ingenuity in the creation of products devoted to a single purpose: to give men pleasure. And the street decorations put up by departments stores and other institutions—the Christmas trees, the winking lights, the glittering colors—provide the city with a spectacular display, which only 'commercial greed' could afford to give us. One would have to be terribly depressed to resist the wonderful gaiety of that spectacle."(Hat tip Not PC)While we welcome the general orgy of capitalism at this time of year we particularly appreciate anything that extracts people out of their usual routine to go on holiday...hopefully staying at a motel or two along the way.
On Christmas Day we will be spending time with a procession of family members and friends that have long stopped inviting us to their Christmas celebrations and will come and visit us while we juggle guest demands at the motel.
It always interests me what type of guests arrive to stay at our motel on Christmas Day. From previous experience we have catergorised them in to typical groupings.
We often attract at least one lonely soul that has had an argument with a family member and after been ejected needs some time alone to reflect. Some arrive bemused with a reasonably humorous yarn to tell while others sadly arrive with bruises.
We often have couples arrive that are either Kiwis or overseas travelers that have purposely planned to avoid a "family Christmas" and have a wonderful time together away from the obligations others would have thrust upon them.
One of the more high management groups of guests are the perennial gang of Asian extended family members that usually depart from Pakuranga or Howick en masse and will sweep into our driveway late afternoon in several in European sedans and people movers. The usual gaggle are made up of at least three separate family groupings that will arrive bewildered and confused: "why are all the shops closed?"
The vehicles will come to an abrupt halt and left parked in all sorts of imaginative acute angles in our car park while the occupants scatter to all points of the motel. There will be a self appointed team leader that speaks a smattering of English that will engage in the obligatory negotiation process at reception. It will be difficult to establish exactly how many people will be staying, however the language barrier is often evaporated when communicating the numbers concerning tariff.
We usually commence the extended haggling session at double our usual tariff to ensure a mutually satisfactory "discount".
And last but not least while most families will either arrive before or after Christmas Day, we usually have at least one overenthusiastic family that have decided last moment to hit the road and will arrive late in the day. By the time they arrive, mum and dad are usually not talking, at least one child is howling and another is sheepishly clutching a sick bag.
In an industry where every day is a Monday, we still regard Christmas Day as a special time. Let the insanity begin!
