Thursday, November 26, 2009

it's beginning to look like Christmas

A quick little Holiday helper Blog which won't help you until next year:
I have NOT participated in "Black Friday" for the last 25 years! Shopping among other people on a normal weekday evening makes me crazy. The average stop to any store during the Holiday rush just gives me hives.
Yes, I have missed all the door stopper deals and 4am specials in exchange for relative sanity and a work free day to put up my tree. I am not particularly bothered by missing these "one time only" deals and don't expect to be bothered this year either.
I will share my secret with you:
I shop for Christmas all year long beginning with the day after Christmas clearances. When the store clearances out everything having to do with whatever the latest sale has been called I continue to clearance shop. I do this right up to Black Friday, then I stop. The money I could have saved by standing in line for 3 hours at Ultimate Electronics pre-dawn crowd (which in late November, Colorado means -10 degrees) does NOT make that big of a difference if you already bought this item. Plus, would you have bought this particular item if it weren't such a spectacular deal? There are always large odds that you will NOT get what you came for during the big sale as the stores usually have VERY LIMITED quantities and the crowds are huge. The frostbite coupled with the trauma just can't beat the satisfaction of seeing it all done months and months ahead.
Of course this is not a perfect plan as you can never tell what item will become the MUST HAVE item for someone you love during the Christmas commercials between the Sponge Bob underwater special and the Chairman's Christmas Cook off. In this case I usually go to the store at 5 am before work on a Monday. That way you are sure to be the first one there and alone in the store. The chances you will actually get the item are on par with the chances you will see this item on "Black Friday" and the clerk won't be alert or awake yet and you may get it 1/2 off anyway!
So go out and shop all you bargain hunters. I'll be eating turkey sandwiches in front of my tree with my toes and sanity intact.