I can feel myself ready to combust and it's only September ! Christmas shopping rant (be warned)

[70isaLimitNotaTarget]

Yesterday DD and I pootled off to Lakeside. It was busy (a Saturday) fair enough.
Couldn't get parked in IKEA carpark.
So goodness knows what the shop would be like.
Tried the Industrial park, nowhere outside Asda/ M&S Outlet

Way home, nightmare.
So I said "That's the last Saturday shop we do DD".

Today, (Sunday) she wanted to go to Primark.
Queues horrendous. Temperature 90 C (well not really but it felt like it)

Walking about with 2 heavy bags............

So:
I love Christmas Shopping. I love the idea of mooching round the shops picking up presents.
But I accept it'll either be online or me going out on the days I'm not at work (I do P/T)

DH and I go out at the end of November (either Lakeside or Bluewater) on a Friday. He's all trudging round shops (and usually has a cold starting ) but I buy him lunch and he carries the bags.

In the weeks leading up to Christmas I avoid the shops unless I go an hour before the shops open (to park).
Or food shopping late evening.

Last year I went out with my list and took things back to my carboot at least 3 times so I didn't have to carry bags.

It all sounds so romantic. Looking in windows. Seeing the lights. It's getting dark. Finding that present.

The reality- boiling shops. Queues. Watching your purse. Carrying bags.
Thinking "Stuff it" and can't be bothered going all the way to the other side of the shopping centre.

Aaah. Whinge over.
But I'll be out there.
I'm hardcore

I love buying gifts for people but with 2 dc under 5, a stressfree Sat shopping trip is a distant memory. I have about 20 people to buy for Eid (next month - I dont celebrate Xmas but lurke on the Xmas board for bargains & ideas) and birthdays. I go online now, particularly for food, and pop during my lunch break as it's the only way I can do it.

I might go to the Xmas markets at Southbank in December but thats for the experience of hot chocs & seeing the lights with the dc.

We do mostly online but Do go t the markets. I get soooooo emotional a well, plus ill be 5month pg so not in the mood for crowds. Owe e lakeside sounds different.

I totally agree. I always have this rose-tinted image of strolling round the shops, all wrapped in snugly scarf and gloves, picking out lovely gifts, stopping for a hot chocolate/coffee, seeing the Christmas lights, everyone happy and smiling.

But in reality, I do most of the shopping online, as the shops are too busy, queues too long, too hot, have to carry the bags, spend the whole day looking for something for MIL/FIL/BIL etc and eventually impulse buy something horrifically expensive as can't find anything suitable, kids and DH are whining etc etc etc

I have found that the trick is to do your christmas shopping online and in sales throughout the year, get it all wrapped and tagged before December 1st and then go 'Christmas shopping' sometime in December. You will not get stressed because there is nothing that you need I take the DC' to choose a few new decorations, perhaps get them to choose a gift for you or your DH and go for lunch and relax

I don't really like shopping due to crowds! Social anxiety etc.

I do get a lot online but I want to support a few local businesses this year.

The main thing for me though is, I DO NOT BROWSE. I will absolutely not wander round shops looking for inspiration/panic buying because it overwhelms me. I can cope with shopping when I know exactly where I'm going and what I'm buying. This applies all year round BTW not just Xmas, it's for my mental (and now physical, since I got ill) wellbeing as much as anything!

That's the great thing about planning in advance isn't it. If I have an idea I can pop into the relevant shop now - eg I knew a local independent store does the popcorn pots I've seen on amazon so I went in on the way to work to check prices, today we asked in a game shop if they will get a particular game in before Xmas, he said they probably will so hopefully we can make a trip there nearer the time.

I do go into town nearer Xmas though, but only once the bulk is done and it's just getting more wrapping paper or something. I hope I can be organised to even avoid that this year.

I get most of my stuff online with a trip to Toy's r us thrown in. Then when I take dc's to the shops I don't need to buy anything so it isn't stressful (hopefully) I hate all the fighting for a parking space, trudging round packed shops full of crazed, desperate people all of us searching for that one perfect, reasonably priced gift, shopping bags cutting into ur hands making maneuvering impossible, all this while I'm sweating under my coat and scarf etc. < shudder> God bless the internet!

I thank god I do not have to go shopping at the weekend.
If I do, I am at the shops at 9am and home by 11 am.

The thought of trudging round with thousands of unhappy people makes me shudder.

Online shopping is your friend. Or go on a Tuesday. Or only buy for 3 people, as I do.

Has anyone read The Woman Who Went To Bed For A Year by Sue Townsend? There's a bit towards to end where the main character is talking about what Xmas is to her, she lists all the manic things she does to prepare. It's really funny - like the Asda Mum, but more harried :o

Oh so true!! Romantic idea.... But not in reality... All the more reason to get it done now. Life is too short to queue

Yes, I hate the crowded shops too. What annoys me most though is that I get my shopping done well before it gets like that (it's done now!) but then inevitably my mum will phone and say "Can you get your Dh X as I can't find any here?" and then my aunty will say "I'll send you some money can you buy the dc X, Y & Z as I can't get to the shops?" and I end up trudging round overcrowded shops, queuing for hours for other people's shopping

I often go on monday mornings. Most people do not or cannot go on monday mornings. Bliss!

Love christmas shopping...

I done about half online last year, and it worked out very well, will do the same this year

I have to get about 70 presents and i also buy and collect presents for a refuge so its hard work but fun !!!

I agree with mmmmmchocolate, get it done on line then a visit into town to see the lights with just a couple of bits to buy for without the stress.

Crafty I also have to get stuff from my parents who hate choosing presents, but there is the advantage that they freely admit this well in advance every year so although I do the ordering, wrapping etc, I can do it well in advance with everything else and plan what we are getting so it doesn't clash etc.

(it would be nice if they wrapped it at least... but then I do like wrapping, so don't really resent it)

crafty that's exactly what my mum does! I like to get all my shopping done by end of Nov to take the stress out of Dec so that I can enjoy the build up to Christmas, and then my mum inevitably asks me to get some presents for various family members the week before Christmas, despite having me asked repeatedly for weeks if there was anything she needed me to get this year!!

I'm going for a midweek nosy tomorrow (I work P/T) so after I've dispatched the DC, got myself to the shops I can think about buying some of the stocking gifts (they always seem to take the most time to source)

I need to be without prying eyes when I do this

I had a brief look around this week in a smallish town. But saw virtually no christmas things at all. They seem to be getting later around our way before the christmas stock hits the shops.

I have been for a Christmas/Halloween/birthday shopping mooch around the shops this morning. I went to the fairy shop to get some stocking things and new sparkly shoes for DD and Halloween outfits for DD and DS and then got some sparkly Halloween body stickers in Accessorize. Paperchase for stationery for DD and then Cybercandy for stocking and party bag sweets. All very pleasant. Some people will probably think we're bonkers for starting this early but it's so much less stressful doing it now.

My next trip probably next week will be to Wilkos for bath-type stocking stuff.

mmmmmchocolate I'm with you.

Xmas shopping is already done because I've done it all online. Bought loads of lovely (Sanctuary, FCUK, Soap & Glory) sets in the Boots post-xmas sale so all adult presents done and did a mammoth Kiddicare and Amazon shop (using the bargain hunter thread on MN) for all the kids stuff and managed to get DD a half price bike from Halfords.

So the only thing I will have to get is food and I've noticed over the last few years that actually, there's been plenty - they seem to have massively improved on keeping the shelves stocked up in the local supermarkets.

I may take a Friday trip to Clarks Village for a mooch at some point in December with the intention of not needing to buy ANYTHING and just enjoy myself. And I always go to the local late night Xmas shopping event at least once with DD so she can get chance to enjoy the festivities.

That was one of the things that surprised me when I first started lurking on MN. Quite how many people were like me and did a lot of shopping early. Far more people than I realised.
For me, for some reason, I am not able to do much in October, so if I dont do some now, Nov has arrived.