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Let the heart, wallet walk hand in hand SANDRA SNYDER WALL TO WALL

Saturday November 29, 2008 | 12:00 AM

So … what’d you buy?

You broke yet?

If so, take heart. Anyone who pumped out pennies anywhere yesterday might now cross “economy” off his or her Christmas list.

You’ve done your part, perhaps, though it’s a bit early yet to tell whether this Black Friday did its part to prevent a Blue Monday. Or Tuesday, Wednesday … you get the idea.

Ah, shopping … where would we be without it?

Might you indulge some random thoughts on the subject today? Can’t help myself. Even as I swore I wouldn’t set foot in a store on the day of days, I found myself pondering surrender.

Flannel sheets, all sizes (even king) $12.99? Down comforters, same deal, $24.99? Oh, Boscov’s, why must you tempt me so?

A normally $79.99 paper shredder for $20? Yes, but would I possibly line up outside an office-supply store in the wee hours post-Thanksgiving when I could be having sweet dreams until – gasp – noon?

This year, especially, the conscience comes into play. Maybe a little more common sense is in order. With so little to go around and such doom and gloom predicted, do we stay (home) or do we go (shopping), caution to the bitter winds?

Arguably, there’s value (and good will) in both, so I think I’ll indeed do both. Call it surrender to the inevitable, as the two choices work in cahoots anyway, did you ever notice? The more you stay home the more you start to notice little, then big, things. And the more likely you are to realize you really do need to get back out there.

One day you’re a happy homemaker content to hang out in the kitchen baking cookies and casseroles. The next you’re casing Bed, Bath & Beyond with your mini mountain of those red, white and blue coupons that keep on coming because you just know it was the fault of your substandard bakeware that the chocolate chips or lasagna didn’t come out quite right.

A day later you’re home on a cleaning spree, all euphoric and proud as you pare closets and cabinets, steam floors, scrub walls, all that. Day after that you’re realizing what such effort actually cost – or will cost -- you when you suddenly realize you’ve given away half your clothes or gotten a little too up close and personal with some walls seriously in need of a paint touch-up.

Hi ho, hi ho, and it’s off to the stores you go …

I mean, seriously, some of us can’t even stay home and lounge in front of the television without temptation these days. I’ve said it before and will say it again: Set design is evil. In a good way, of course. Even when the writers were on strike and the plot lines were thin, the living rooms, bedrooms and kitchens looked so swell as to make it seriously difficult, at least for one of my kind, to convince myself I didn’t suddenly need a whole new wall scheme or even a kicky new throw blanket.

To swoon is human, to sigh (and move on) divine.

This is what I must tell myself as we enter what has become, despite our every counter-inclination, a season of conspicuous consumption.

If we’re going to swoon, let it be over fresh-fallen snow or the final scenes of “It’s A Wonderful Life” or “The Sound of Music,” a perennial seasonal favorite. Over a new twist on an old carol or the first tastes of anise, baked into cookies on who-cares-which pans.

If somewhere in between we’re going to shop, so be it. Help the old economy along, sure. But do so with meaning and sentiment, a giving spirit. Make that sigh one of pure satisfaction.

About the Author

Sandra Snyder covers Features for the Times Leader. Reach her at (570) 831-7383 or ssnyder@timesleader.com.

Sandra Snyder is the Times Leader's features editor, overseeing the food, family, home and Sunday lifestyles sections as well as the weekly entertainment Guide. She began working at the Times Leader in 1993 as a copy editor and has held various positions, including Hazleton editor/bureau chief, editor of the Times Leader-Mountaintop and Social Issues co-team leader. She also has done general-interest news and features reporting. Her most memorable interview to this day remains the delightful and now decidedly not 16-going-on-17 Charmian Carr, a.k.a. Liesl in "The Sound of Music." These days, she encourages readers who love (and sometimes despise) their homes to write to her and share their household tales, tragic or otherwise, particularly the type they're willing to have retold in print.