With Christmas and Hanukah right around the corner, it is time to start getting your act together to venture out into mall territory and do some holiday shopping. It isn’t fun when you realize after you spent the whole day shopping that you missed someone on your Christmas list. So we are here to help you out with Make a List, Check it twice Start with a list of everyone you’re going to give something to, no matter how small. It might be a tad overwhelming if you’ve done it properly. Even small families are connected a great many people they want to share joy with. Review the list every so often to keep it fresh in mind. This is a great method for remembering those we love that we don’t see very often. Also, with reminding yourself occasionally, you might find yourself remembering people while you are out and about. If you see something that makes you think of a person on your list, either buy it or write it down so you can buy something like that later.
Shop for Christmas at any Time While you’re doing your regular shopping (looking at catalogs, browsing online stores, or going to garage sales) you can keep one eye out for things you want and one eye out for gifts. Pick up things here and there, and by Christmas, you will have most of your shopping done. Plus, you’ll have items that made you think of the giftee, not just stuff that you ran around grabbing randomly on the 20th of December before the mall closed. Hide and Remember to Seek If you’ve taken our advice from the previous suggestion, there are two steps that are crucial for you to follow.
One: Put all the gifts in the same place. Get a box or a basket or a closet or SOMETHING, and put everything you buy for the purpose of gifting in this box. It wouldn’t be very helpful if you just leave gift purchases around, and then either can’t find them or the intended recipient comes over for dinner and sees their Christmas present in the pile of things in the corner of your house. If you put everything away, you won’t lose it before the holidays and it won’t be broken, forgotten, dirtied, or seen.
Two: update your gift list with the presents you have bought. Let’s avoid this scenario: you have had a person on your list who you didn’t buy any presents for by Christmas, and you rush out to buy them something. Then, when you’re wrapping presents, you discover something you bought for them in September. Writing down who gets what also helps. Just think about it, instead of meeting the madness of shoppers who didn’t plan, you get to stay home and drink cocoa and watch movies. Shopping throughout the year allows you to spread out the financial impact of gift-giving, while also giving you more time to really think about each person, instead of buying something without thought because time was running out. Let’s not make holiday shopping a chore!