To not be doing my christmas shopping

[tarantino123]

It seems everyone has already done their christmas shopping, or else is planning to do so by Thursday. Is this primarily driven by covid/lockdown or are people usually this pre organised?
What's the main reason ? Is it to spread the cost?
I never do mine til 2nd week of December and never have any issue getting things. I put my money every month from July ish to save up.
If you buy so far in advance, how do you even know what people would like that early ? Also if it's > 30 days since you bought the item, the recipient won't be able to exchange it if it's too big/too small/they get duplicates- how do you deal with that?
My extended family are panicking to get to shops. I mostly order online so i'm not bothered. This time i'll just get stuff online if shops don't reopen before christmas.Most retailers have this option.
What's the rush ? Am I missing something ?

I don't consider myself doing it at the 11th hour either, usually done by middle December. The 11th hour is christmas eve !

I agree! I always thought it was a tiny number of people who even started to think about it before December. Another think MN has enlightened me to.

DC are 2 and 4 and DC2 has a late December birthday too. They're both far too fickle for me to know what they will love by Christmas.

I always like to get my shopping done in November. The shops are mayhem in December and that was pre Covid! That's my only reason though. I usually wait until so far in November that the return dates are for January as they extend them.

YANBU. I say this with teens though and not small children.

I'm going to see what's on offer Black Friday. There's also Amazon (a dirty word on here).

I've stripped presents back anyway to just a few close family and there's nothing I couldn't get from a big supermarket if need be.

What's the worst that could happen? People wouldn't mind not getting gifts or just a token.

There needs to be perspective.

I've been doing mine throughout the year, mainly as I find things to be cheaper, and as DS is still very young he hasn't asked for anything specific (I'd do it mid December otherwise in case he changed his mind). I have ordered a few personalised things from Etsy, so did that in good time as postage is likely to be slow as it was last lockdown with so many deliveries, and they might be busy have turnaround time a bit longer- otherwise I'd just do it in December.

I've done everything, with uncertainties over lockdowns and potential long delivery times from amazon I've done all mine.

Went to a local toys shop last month and bought a heap of it and got the remaining on Amazon. Still waiting on some to arrive even though I ordered it a few weeks ago so already delivery times are much longer

I don't want the stress in December of kids toys not arriving on time

@bloodywhitecat

I can't. I don't know which of my fosterlings will still be with me if any.

@bloodywhitecat my stomach just went all tight reading that.

Sending hugs. Don't know if they're needed / wanted / appreciated, but sending them anyway.

I do my shopping early November, pretty much always have since having children

Cards and wrapping done late november/early December

I’m always waiting for at least one thing though!

I always start in September because I have five children so I spread the cost. I haven’t bought everything but I get everything online anyway so I’m not too fussed. I’m expecting longer delivery times so I won’t leave anything till the very last minute.

@ragged I can buy early because my family don't tend to flip flop around in what they like very much.

I have also always told my DC that Christmas suggestions lists close at the start of December.

I usually have it all completed by the start of December.

That was because my work was much busier in December plus three lots of Christmas concerts, class parties, Cubs/brownies events etc etc to attend or help out at. Trying to fit shopping in made it stressful, so I would get it out of the way.

This year I’ve barely thought about it. DC are teens/young adults (so less for me to do) and since March we’ve felt in a weird limbo as all the usual events in the calendar have not happened. I can’t think about Christmas. It’s all odd.

To answer the OPs question, I think it's Covid 19 related. The belief that the four week restrictions will be longer, based on the experience of the March/April restrictions lasting until July.

Both ds’s are almost done, I am waiting on a couple of deliveries and need to pick up a couple of vouchers. I nipped to the toy shop this morning for my nieces presents so all that’s left is ds’s stocking gifts, pj’s/book for Christmas Eve and gifts for family members, I only buy a token gift for them but try to make it something nice they will use. We are normally done by the end of November anyway but this year I think restrictions are likely to cause time delays with ordering so will finish mine when I get paid on Friday

I have always had my shopping complete by end Nov. I tend to wrap 1st week Dec and usually have a full social calendar... not this year!

I have always started early, to spread the cost and stress and leave me more time to really shop around and make lists lol
Have some bits already, off to B&M this evening for the stocking fillers and advent calendars and stuff then the rest will be done online like always as I don't like shopping!

I started in September and have done for the past couple of years for similar reasons to others - it spreads the cost, I enjoy it so prefer spreading it out, it's less stressful and also I find (pre-COVID) that my social calendar in December fills up quickly. I'll leave a few things until December but I would rather spend the majority of the month enjoying the festive season rather than stressing about everyone's presents _

I still remember leaving it until a particular pay day one December only to not get paid that day due to an error of some kind and I had to borrow money from my Mum to buy her own presents

I start in September to spread the cost , I also panic a lot in the lead up. And being on top of the present buying keeps me calm the food stuff I buy what can be stored from November and get the fresh stuff a few days before. I'm mostly online shopping this year because of the 6 week lockdown here, which means I'll spend less because. I. Won't see random crap and just throw it in the trolley

how finickity are people in your life that they change their likes/personality monthly?

I buy 6 months in advance for my kids and 1-2 months in advance for adults but have litrally never had the issue of people completely changing their likes and personality in that time

buying whatever you can find left availble in the last few weeks does not result in 'wanted and loved gifts' it results in people often getting whatever crap is left because obviously the good stuff sold out or cant be found/delivered in time because organised people didnt leave it with days to go

honest if I had a pound for everytime someone has given me a crappy gift bought in the days before xmas then said 'I planned to get you x, y or z but left it too late so hear is b' I would be pretty rich lol
seing people justify that as somehow 'better gifts' is hillarious

YANBU not to have done but people also aren't being unreasonable if they have. Different things work for different people, I guess.

I always do mine in the second half of December. All of it. I work in a boarding school so our term time, especially the Christmas term, is absolutely mental. But we also finish for the holidays way before Christmas so I have loads of time then. It's just what's easier for me.

I buy early so I can spread cost, post what I need from the Post Office in plenty of time, ensure I can get what I need in good time, and - crucially - spend Advent doing nice things with DS and DH, visiting family (in non-Covid times) and sitting quietly in the evenings with the Advent candle lit and a good Christmas book on the go.

I always try to finish in November.

I’m normally a week before Christmas panic buyer but not this year!
I’ve done mine early, mainly because during the last lockdown the shops were selling out of lots of things and didn’t restock and I didn’t want to be left with rubbish if lockdown last longer than 4 weeks.

I’ve always done even 30 years ago when the internet didn’t exist, I worked then and like presents wrapped by December the 1st, that’s when decs went up as well, today it’s online of course and tree will go up middle of December.

I've bought the presents for my nephews and sent them to America already. Have also bought main gifts for a couple of my kids and intend to get main gifts for the others this week. If the shit really hits the fan I want to know I've got something nice for each of them here.
Have also been buying sweets and cakes etc for Christmas and ordered the turkey.

I've been buying things for my DS as his birthday is 3 days after Christmas so tend to start early to spread the cost. I'm not really doing presents for anyone else as in every other year really

Personally, I do the same thing every year. But throughout the year if I see something (I have things from January in the cupboard) and officially start properly looking from August 1st (my eldest son’s birthday is end of July, so seems a reasonable time to start). I don’t buy everything then, but I do start to make a conscious effort to specifically look for Christmas gifts. I try to get things in sales so that I can get better value for my money - eg I spend £20 each on my nieces and nephews, so if I can get a £35-£40 item for £20 that I know they’ll want, I get it. Particularly for my brother-in-law’s daughter as they only have one child, we have 3, so I am very conscious that they are spending a lot more than we are (but given we have 3 kids and 6 nieces and nephews plus goddaughters and their siblings to buy for we can’t afford to spend more, nor would it be fair to spend more on one than another). Does that make sense?

The bulk of my shopping is done mid November onwards, since the Black Friday sales started to occur in the UK I’ve tended to leave it until then a lot more often as I’m fed up with seeing things I bought reduced in that!