Christmas shopping: online, mall, stores, homemade, or other?

I have to shop in stores or malls.  I need to see exactly what I am buying, because I want to be completely sure that it's the perfect gift for my family, or friends. 

I have NO patience, so eventually I get frustrated.  Luckily, I can almost always take out my frustrations by being a smart a$$ or quietly making fun of someone.  (One of my favorites is telling someone who has kids that are acting like monsters that my dogs act better than their children.  The look on the frazzled parent's face is priceless.  They are never sure if they should be offended or if they should be embarrassed.)

 I am happy to say that I finished my Christmas shopping for everyone except my bf back in October.  I've had a pretty easy time shopping for only one person this holiday season. 

Hmmmm I may be the odd one here, I enjoy shopping.  I use a pad and make a plan that helps me make very dollar go as far as possible. I often window shop and lay out a  course so later I can bring the DH and together we "shop".  I can shop all day and spend nothing   or I can spend very large amounts of money in hours.  It maybe the area I live in ? Most of the folks here in the South seem to have pretty decent manners when shopping.  I am often offered help to carry packages or reach things out of reach.

I am not a hottie , just a realtively young and pleasant looking Grandmother.  I smile a lot and folks respond to that. I Always try to compliment he clerks ad sales associates. I have worked that type of job when I was putting myself through nursing school. Grumpy , mean  people are a hazzard that has to be dealt with. I try not to add to it.  When stuck in a line I chat with the others, if they seem closed off and reluctant to talk I smile at them until they do.

As I said I like shopping, I like to touch the different textures or smell the scents and when possible taste the treats I rare;y have at home. Today I bravely acceted a sample of a low fat pumpkin spice latte....Ym!!! Didn't thik I would like it, it sounded awful but happily I really enjoyed it, and when they then offered me a big honking sample of gingerbread I smiled and took the smallest sample and savored it without worrying about the  holiday hips !! After paying for my purchases I went to the Starbucks and bought a tall Pumpking spice latte and chatted briefly with the smiling clerk. I went to yet another store, energised and having a great time!

My Mom , who was a very wise woman told me when I was young, "Attitude is everything"   If you think your day will be a laboring effort to buy treats and presents It will Be. If you decide your day is an adventure and an outing ...It is. Hopefully I have taught my girls that and will be able to teach the Grands this as well.

Bonita of Bwana

Bonita of Bwana

My Mom , who was a very wise woman told me when I was young, "Attitude is everything"   If you think your day will be a laboring effort to buy treats and presents It will Be. If you decide your day is an adventure and an outing ...It is.

I wish more customers felt that way!  I work for Victoria's Secret, so this time of year is CRAZY.  The worst part is that I feel like the store has been over-run with rude and inconsiderate customers this year.  And honestly, the majority of the associates are excellent in terms of customer service, so it's not even really an issue of associates giving customers a hard time.  Since it's my job to run the floor, I keep tabs on customers and associates, and has seem some of the issues firsthand.  I even had one customer go NUTS when I informed her that she couldn't use a coupon to buy gift cards.  She threw the gift cards in my face, and proceeded to chuck a pointy hanger at me, almost skewering my stomach.  Jeez!  I wish I could tell people to relax, and that if they are considerate, associates will be usually bend over backward.  This is supposed to be a holly-jolly time of year, so enjoy the giving season!

As for my own personal shopping, I really detest hanging out in the mall that I've already been working in for 8+ hours.  So I'm a huge fan of buying stuff as I find it through the year.  If I have to do store shopping, I usually try to go between 9-11am or 8-10pm.  That's when the least amount of customers are around, so it's a little better.  Or I try to make as many presents as I can.  For instance, I'm making a lot of scarves for people this Christmas, and it's nice because Hobby Lobby doesn't have quite the same traffic as the mall!

For years when we lived out in the middle of nowhere and the choices were Target or drive 45 minutes to the closest mall to go to a bunch of chain stores, we did almost everything online. But that seemed to result in a serious rut of always giving the same categories of gift: book and CDs.

So this year I took advantage of the fact that I now live in a vibrant urban center and I spent yesterday shopping at mostly locally owned unique stores. I kind of wanted my gifts this year to be something that everyone on our list couldn't just get in their cars and go to the nearest Target and get the exact same things.

I got DH a new tweed cap (he's such a dork--he's 33 but dresses like he's 60) from the Irish Design Center (a small store that sells all Irish imported items--sweaters, jewelry and glass mostly--run by an Irish gent), and a new pair of pants from American Apparel. His mom is a union organizer for SEIU and his family is heavily union (Irish and Italian immigrant stock) and he's been expressing a desire to purchase clothes made in union shops even if they are more expensive.

I got his dad a sweat shirt from American Apparel (again, the union-made angle) and a Ben Franklin action figure because his dad describes his religion as "Franklinist" and he just loves old Ben. For his mom I did take the chain store route because she's a quilter and I got her some quilt patterns and a quilt-block-a-day 2008 desk calender, and also a new travel mug from Starbucks (but it's actually a Pittsburgh mug with a print of the city skyline on it--I have the same one!). His sister is a school librarian so I got her these funky kits with bookmarks and removable stickers that say various things that kids can stick in books but won't hurt the paper, and also a countdown-till-Bush-is-out-of-office desk calender. There's a great store next to the Irish Design Center called Made By Hand that sells, well, everything is made by hand by artisans and craftspeople. I got my mom an enamel-ware magnet with a cat on it cuz my mom is kind of a crazy cat lady (and my dad is the male version of same). I also saw a mug at another store that somehow didn't make it in to my bag when I checked out (they didn't charge me for it though) that I'm going to get for my dad (bit time civil libertarian) that has the Bill of Rights on it but when you pour hot coffee in, it disappears and it says "Courtesy of the PATRIOT act". Yeah I guess I kind of went heavy on the political gifts this year! I also have planned stops this week at the art and natural history museum gift shops and also the conservatory gift shop (all three are within a few blocks of my office).

I have to say, I had so much more fun shopping this year since I decided to stay away from the malls and Big Box Stores and focus on boutiques and locally owned ones. So much fun stuff! 

bonita,

 that is an excellent outlook. as much as i hate shopping, i always try to give the sales associates and clerks a smile and a thank you or have a nice day. i worked in retail when i was in high school. i know how thankless and stressful those jobs can be. it is amazing how often a smile and thank you can make even the most surly clerk smile.

cressida,

when we first moved to greenville, the city had started a major campaign to revitalize the downtown area (and is still ongoing). there were several cool shops and boutiques downtown. my favorite was a store that sold russian goods and antiques. we bought my brother a cool hand made chess set in there one year. unfortunately, people seem to like the malls better and most of the truly unique places have closed now. replaced by yet another coffee shop, burrito place, or bar.
 

I do pretty much ALL of my shopping online. I hate crowds and hate shopping. Plus if you really dig around you can find better deals online. For anyone doing their holiday shopping online this chrismas make sure to check out the sites like...

www.couponcabin.com (alot of other similar sites) There is alot of them posted sometimes will save you a percentage off or atleast free shippping :)  

The only time I run into a store is for a gift card.