6 Tips for Last Minute Christmas Shoppers

Suggestions to Make Christmastime Shopping Trips Easier

Dec 18, 2008 Michelle Pannecoucke

Last minute shoppers should consider these quick tips to avoid being overwhelmed in their shopping frenzy.

December 18: there are six days until Christmas Eve. Only six days to make the last of the Christmas preparations. To help those who may still have shopping to do, here are six Christmas shopping ideas to keep in mind.

  1. Do not wait until Christmas Eve.Yes, these tips are to encourage last minute shoppers and their habit of getting gifts almost before it is too late. However, consider Christmas Eve as too late. Out for a few hours on Christmas Eve will let everyone know about the last minute shopping, and no shopper wants that. Plus, at a mall on Christmas Eve, one will be crowded by all the other Christmas Eve shoppers. It will be noisy and stuffy and can give shoppers a mall headache.
  2. Avoid dollars stores at all costs. Shoppers can be trampled. Remember the rule about running into all the other last minute shoppers. Yes, the dollar store is cheap and fairly convenient, however, shoppers may end up spending more time waiting in the line to pay and leave than the time spent finding those purchases.
  3. Try not to buy a turkey at the very last minute. Turkeys bought at the last minute may actually be on sale, but are most likely the unwanted ones because they are too large, too small, too old, or simply not the preferred brand. Therefore, waiting too long to get a turkey may leave a shopper with slim pickings for choices. However, if one cannot help waiting until the last minute to get the turkey, remember that grocery stores are like the crowded Christmas Eve mall or the dollar stores during Christmastime. Consider finding a 24-hour grocery store and go at a time when there should not be a huge crowd – like midnight.
  4. Try downtown “Mom & Pop” shops. Big box stores and fancy malls may be all that and a bag of chips, but they run into the noisy crowd problem. Also, it is usually quality and not quantity that matters. Small “Mom & Pop” shops tend to have great selections of whatever a shopper looks for, and then some. By looking in a little hobby shop, one may, by chance, find the absolute gem of a gift.
  5. Do not bring the kids along. Many children tend to ask for the things they see and want in that moment and may be disappointed should they not get it. If they are the kind of children that pull food off the racks in the grocery store and put them in the cart without notice, it may be best to not let them come on the most last-minute shopping trip. Try leaving them with grandma and grandpa.
  6. Hide gifts in the closet and wrap them on Christmas Eve. Last-minute shoppers may not want to let everyone else know that their shopping was done last-minute. So get the gifts whenever it works out, but hide them in the closest until the very last minute. Then wrap them and place them under the tree on Christmas Eve, just in time for them to wait overnight to be opened. That way, no one will actually know when the shopping was done; all they will know is that the wrapping was done at the very last minute.

Six days goes by so quickly, especially for a last-minute shopper. In the meantime, allow these tips to help stress less and have more fun.

The copyright of the article 6 Tips for Last Minute Christmas Shoppers in Entertaining is owned by Michelle Pannecoucke. Permission to republish 6 Tips for Last Minute Christmas Shoppers in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
Last Minute Shoppers, M. Pannecoucke
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