On “Black Friday,” the official start to holiday shopping season, I was working the Grange Bazaar. To set the tone, I completed my outfit with a bright holiday hat and a pair of festive metal star-shaped Santa earrings. When a former student of mine came in, I was delighted to see her, and gave her a big, happy hug. She immediately flinched and pulled away.

“Ms. B.! You’re wearing Ninja Santas on your ears!” she exclaimed.

Fortunately, I hadn’t punctured her, and she sat down for a nice long chat about her current college challenges, my various writing adventures, and so forth. I’m always happy to see “my children” succeed, and I enjoy watching them evolve into the amazing adults I predicted they would become.

At the end of the conversation, she stood to leave, but put both hands up to fend me off. “I don’t want to get near those crazy earrings again,” she said with a laugh.

I gently hugged her anyway, being more mindful of the potential Weapons of Mass Destruction hanging from my ear lobs.

Relating this story to a frazzled girlfriend of mine later that day when she returned, exhausted, from the “crazed and kamikaze world of bargain hunting,” she suggested I might wear them in self-defense as I finish my own holiday shopping.

I didn’t have the heart to tell her I’m not the 4 a.m. Warrior Shopper type. But I did offer to lend her the earrings.