The answer: Every shopping center I walk in to. The biggest shopping weekend of the year has begun. It almost makes me green all over, ready to puke. I am not one of those shopping patrons that wake up at 3:00 am to get the screaming deals at Target or the Toy store. I value my sleep more than my wallet. I guess I should care more about the savings, but my body thanks me when I wake up refreshed. Then I call my friend and see what deals I missed out on.
I am almost done with my shopping. I try to do it early so that I don’t have to think about it last minute. I really try to think about the person I am shopping for. I try to get that perfect present and it takes more time than December 23rd. In early October I am getting my lists ready. My siblings and my husbands siblings still give gifts to each other. We rotate through a list, so that you will get everyone within the 8 years, (yes, there are 8 kids in my family.)
How do you get it all done? What lists do you create? How do you stay organized? And how does the gift giving work in your family?
Written by Marie LeBaron
Marie LeBaron is the founder and managing editor of Make and Takes. Always having a love of crafts, she enjoys getting messy with glue and glitter. There’s always some sort of project going on, her kitchen counter is often cluttered with crafts. When she’s not crafting and creating with her kids, she loves to run, read, and blog! Read other posts by Marie
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I’m a list girl for sure! I make a weekly list to keep organized. But like you I value my sleep way too much to get up at insane hours to save a few bucks.
Our gift giving arrangements are pretty reasonable (when people keep to the rules). My husband has 4 siblings in his family and I’m the only child so for his family we pick names for the adults at Thanksgiving and everyone gets gifts for the kids (3 in total so far). When we get together on Thanksgiving, we each get a piece of paper and list 3 items that we would enjoy (you pick 1 or all 3 it’s up to the giver). Then we put everyones paper with their name in a hat (bucket, bowl, whatever) and that’s who you gift! Pretty easy.
I try to get an early start for my family, but it doesn’t always happen. We definitely always buy for the baby and my mom. But we limit the gifts we give to eachother. Sometimes we even decide to not get eachother anything and instead my husband and I take a trip together some time in the year. It works for us.
My list is what MIGHT I get for everyone (my four siblings, his one, plus aunts and uncles and a few cousins that still get us things). Then, we hit the clearance racks and sales starting in October. We get gifts for pretty much everyone. Shopping the sales helps a TON. This weekend has actually been pretty great – we hit Crate and Barrel this afternoon, and got nearly 2/3 of our shopping done! They have some really great, inexpensive (less than $15) gifts for aunts, uncles, cousins…things you can give to a “family”, instead of buying gifts for every MEMBER of said family.