Finished with Christmas Shopping?

I am stressed to the max. I cant believe I let myself get caught this December. I am empty handed despite having a long wish list from the kids.

I did almost everything last minute. I finished the advent's wreath two days before the first Sunday of Advent. At the same time that I finished creating the advent's calendars for both kids.

And I started our Christmas shopping only last Friday. And of course, I am not yet finished. I went to another spree this morning. You would think I would be finished? Of course not!

The thing is, we also buy gifts for the kids for the St. Nikolaus Tag (St. Nicholas Day) which is the traditional 'Santa Claus' Day here in Germany on the 6th of December. And then MC would be celebrating her 7th birthday this December 10. Add those Christmas Day gifts itself. Arrghhh, help!

Can you imagine the bulk of gifts that I needed to buy? And to store? Good thing I wont need to wrap most of them. I already promised myself and I was successful with it for the past years -- that I would have all things ready before the end of November. But not this year, so many things happened that made it a bit chaotic.

But hey, I still have time. Why am I panicking? I dont know, I guess, it's just that I am not really used to being in the middle of the crowd during holiday season. Normally, I would be cooly relaxing my heels and would simply browse for the next sale season.

I went back to my post last 2007 and I saw that I was done with Christmas shopping mid November and here were my tips then:

Want to know how I finished shopping early?

1. I have been listing down gifts that would fit everyone in the family since Christmas last year.

2. I already bought some gifts that were tagged down from last season.

3. Whenever the girls and I go around to shop, they always tell me what they wanted for their birthday or for Christmas or for Easter and I tend to note them all down.

4. As for the immediate family, I simply take note of their hobbies, their favorites and subtly ask them what they wanted. And I take note, of sizes, too when necessary.

5. When those gifts are on sale, I grab them. When I get discounts from online shops or free postage, I shop. That way I save, too.

6. My husband takes time off from work to go shopping with me, alone, as early as November. We bring the kids to kindergarten and we head off as early as possible to the malls.

7. And most important, make sure you hide those things in a safe place. Far from the wandering eyes and hands of your kids.

I guess I know why I am not ahead this time. When before I used to shop alone, now I have found somebody to shop with. And shopping with a friend takes more time as we do go on discussing the pros and cons of different items in our lists.And we do tend to sneak time to window shop for ourselves :D

But hey, I enjoyed it. So am not complaining :D I better go now, my friend is waiting for another shopping round ;D