Festive shopping = stress, isn’t that right? Well, it all depends on how you do it? I used to be the kind of person who ran around like a headless chicken on Christmas Eve shouting at the poor clerk in the toy store, ‘what do you mean you’ve run out of Tamagotchis!!!!’, totally not showing my age there! But it doesn’t have to be that way, there are various ways to get a jump on the holiday season.
Do it Well in Advance
This could be considered the most simple advice and therefore why even bother putting it in? Well because so many of us still don’t actually take it on board. It’s said that almost half of us are leaving it to the last minute and panic shopping. One big downside to this is that prices inevitably rise on popular items in the lead up to Christmas despite retailers attempting to give the impression of winter and Christmas discounts. The big secret is that they never really offer discounts on the big holiday sellers.
Pay Attention to Your Friends & Family
The most common complaint I hear from shoppers when looking for gifts for loved ones is that they can’t figure out what they want, or that they don’t want anything or have any interests. This is quite basically rubbish, everyone likes things and have interests, what you need to do is engage with them in the period leading up to Christmas ask questions, listen to anything they talk about and use this as hints. Even look at all their Facebook and Twitter feeds, people tend to talk about what they are interested in or passionate about, giving you book ideas, etc.
Don’t Take Offence
OK so this one is mostly about the receiving of gifts, it’s important to be gracious when someone else gets it wrong. But this can also be a useful attitude to have when giving as well, as often you will get it wrong and see the hurt and disappointment on your friend or relatives face. But when this happens don’t take offense yourself, this is what gift receipts are for, simply say you are happy for them to return it if they like.
Do Some of it From Home
There is a sure way to avoid the crowds and the crushes, not being caught up waiting in queues for hours and hours on the last Saturday before Christmas, stopping to grab an essential coffee and trying to drinking it while holding a dozen shopping bags. Online shopping is the way forward and it’s gathering so much momentum that almost everyone buys at least some of their gift shopping online, and there are more than a few that do it all this way. Gone are the days when mail order items have to be ordered weeks in advance. Next day delivery is available even in the week before Christmas, allowing even last-minute shoppers to take advantage, up to a point. Another advantage of the online gift buying experience is if you have loved one living overseas then you don’t need to get to the post office and do the international post thing, you can buy gifts locally to them and even have them gift-wrapped in many places.
Get Someone Else to Do It
If you just can’t be bothered why not get someone else to do it? We do this with so many other things, we’ll hire a cleaner or get the kids to do the dishes or vacuum the living room to earn their pocket money. If you have teenage kids they may even get a kick out of the responsibility of getting to decide someone else’s gift. Do you know that you can actually hire a personal shopper per hour and the charges vary a lot for these services?
Buy Everyone Gift Vouchers
Get everyone a gift card, sounds like the cowards way out, doesn’t it? But for some people it is ideal, they don’t care that you couldn’t work out the perfect gift and would much rather have the opportunity to choose their own and get something they would actually enjoy and use. Also, all gift vouchers aren’t necessarily the lack of thought, a good example is the emergence of experience days gift cards, these can be anything from high-octane thrills like sky-diving or white water rafting, or more relaxed activities such as spa days, even visits to attractions like the Runway Visitor Park.
