How late do you shop for Christmas?

[Smellincoffee]

My father, inexplicably, never shops until the week before Christmas. Some years on Christmas Eve itself he is running around town or driving to big shopping centers in other cities to find The Gift for my mom. When I was younger, I thought this was because he worked two jobs and never had time, but now he's semi-retired and still does it. I think perhaps he enjoys being out in the panicking bustle. He's the only one in the family -- my mom acquires things throughout the year, and I buy everything all at once in November.

What about you? Do you get it taken care of early, or wait?

 

[Timsup2nothin]

I haven't done the Christmas gift thing since the early nineties, so coming up on twenty-five years.

 

[Birdjaguar]

My wife accumulates things all year for me and the kids and is still not ready come the 24th. We talk about what to get for each other all fall and buy those items then, knowing that they are early Christmas presents. I buy a few things opportunistically in November that might be surprises. Then I give her a bunch of cash to spend however she wants. Most of our effort is for the kids (now grown) that she does almost all the work.

 

[Terxpahseyton]

Last week I ordered all my Christmas presents online. Took ~ 3h.
Yesterday the last one arrived and I have them all hid away in a cupboard.
Done!

 

[BvBPL]

I got three perfect gifts in the mall today, Saturday, at one thirty in the afternoon in under an hour and for less than fifteen dollars each. I am the last minute shopping master.

 

[bhavv]

I dont participate in any kind of gift giving events anymore. I've always disliked massive social events and don't like attending or participating in such things as bday parties, Xmas, weddings, funerals etc.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Sometimes I leave it quite late, even after midnight.

 

[sophie]

Just did most/all of my Christmas gift buying today.

Usually I do it in early-mid December - not this late.

 

[Narz]

I barely buy people stuff & I don't expect any stuff for me.

However, I did get my daughter some things. One of them 5-minutes ago off Amazon. Cool lil' board game, the top one I learned this year, says age 9 n' up but I figure she can handle it

 

[Cheetah]

I should start soon.

I have been out shopping on Christmas eve, yes. That's the major Christmas day in Norway, and the stores will close by noon, so it's not really recommendable...

 

[SeekTruthFromFacts]

Haven't started yet (except for one gift I saw while waiting in a checkout queue....)

 

[Borachio]

I generally do my Christmas shopping a year too late. I'm just now doing last year's shopping.

Just occasionally, though, I do it a year too early.

 

[warpus]

I used to do my Christmas shopping on one of the last days possible - I would just show up to a mall and walk around and find stuff for everyone.

Then my family switched over to a "secret santa" style Christmas a couple years ago, since we all hate shopping and with the economy in the crapper and people having kids and all, it was just the prudent thing to do. To us christmas is more about friends and family rather than gifts anyway. So anyhow, we all sign up online to drawmyname.com or something similar, and everybody gets matched up with 1 person they are buying for. This person then fills out a list of stuff they want, making it very easy to buy for them. So since we started doing that, I've been ordering my gifts online ahead of time. Still have got to pad the watch I bought for my brother in law with a scratch card and a couple smaller things. I also bought some gifts for my nieces - cause come on, they are kids and I'm their cool uncle. I bought both of them at costco ahead of time and wrapped them last night.

I also a couple days ago bought my roommate a big bag of peanut m&ms, since he loves them, and costco has giant bags of them. And his dog got something too. Other than that I bought star wars tickets for monday for me and 2 friends, and when they shows up to pick me up, they'll find out it's a christmas gift.

So yeah, I used to leave it all until the very last day possible (christmas eve eve, we open our gifts on christmas eve and there's no time to shop that day), but these days I try to get it done all ahead of time, if possible. It's awesome to sit here looking behind me, and a couple large gifts are packed and ready to go. I won't be freaking out and going crazy in a couple days' time.

 

[Antilogic]

I usually do it in December, and this year I did it yesterday. That's about average for me.

 

[Daw]

Between the adults it's a setoff usually.

But with presents for kids, Grandpa Frost still gotta use a parent's helping hand though, so some shopping is needed. Shopping on-line is a cool thing, indeed. But sometimes people lie that they have what they don't have, and it comes out last moment, and then I turn into a Grandpa Frost myself (internally) and jump in my car (which sort of becomes a sleigh) and head on for the challenge of finding the presents hidden somewhere in a shop in a 15-million people metropois before the time is up... it's fun.

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

Usually the deadline for me is the weekend before Christmas week.

 

[Silurian]

I normally leave it until the 5th or 6th of January

 

[Mise]

Still haven't bought anything for my gf or parents.

 

[Wolfbeckett]

I don't really celebrate Christmas. Growing up my family were all Jehovah's Witnesses, and they don't celebrate it, so I got in the habit of it not being a big deal from a young age. And now as an adult I'm an atheist so I don't feel the need to adopt a religious holiday that I've never celebrated before just because it's popular.

So in short, I don't do Christmas shopping at all, hooray!

 

[warpus]

My old roommate came from a family of Jehova Witnesses.. He's since left the faith, but now he's an over the top materialist. You bet he celebrates Christmas. He buys all the things.