Once upon a time, in a time and place long ago, Santa never bought presents for all of the good boys and girls with plastic money. He only used green pieces of paper with pictures and numbers on them. When he didn’t have enough green papers, Santa would tell the store what he wanted to buy and ask the store to hold it for him. Each week, when he got paid, Santa would go to the store and give the manager some money as a partial payment on the toy that the store was holding. When the toy was completely paid for, Santa would take it to the North Pole and have the elves wrap the present and put the name of the child for whom it was intended on the package. The North Pole was a very happy place.
One day, an ogre gave Santa a piece of plastic and told him that he no longer had to take green paper to the store. He could fill his sleigh with all the toys it could carry and not worry about the green papers. In fact, he wouldn’t need green papers for a long time. Over time, the North Pole became a very sad place. There was never enough green paper and Santa received calls at all hours of the day and night from angry people demanding that he give them green papers immediately; lots of green papers that he didn’t have.
Finally, the head elf approached Santa with an idea … stop using the plastic … give the angry people green papers until all of the plastic bills were paid in full. Then, ask the stores to hold the toys and allow him to bring a few pieces of green paper to the manager every week. When the manager had received enough of the green papers, Santa could bring the toy back to the North Pole and have the elves wrap it in bright paper with shiny ribbons and bows.
On the day after Christmas, with no plastic swords hanging over his head threatening to make the coming year unpleasant, Santa could begin planning for the next year and getting presents ready for the good boys and girls. The North Pole was once again a happy place and Santa could enjoy each day of the year as he looked forward to the next Christmas Eve.
That insight would have saved us a lot of effort early on.