Picture this scenario! It’s December 24th, the day of Christmas Eve. On this day you should be relaxing, enjoying time with family and thinking of all the precious memories you have created throughout the year.
No, wait! It’s the last day of shopping before Christmas and you haven’t even started to do your gift shopping.
You get into your car and fight traffic all the way to the local mall, only to spend an hour trying to find a parking spot. That is if you find one at all. You enter the mall in search of the perfect gifts and there is a stampede of people. Looks like everyone else is doing last minute shopping too!
You dodge the nudging elbows and stomping feet of the crowds. You’re starting to feel claustrophobic, your stress level is starting to increase and you haven’t even begun shopping yet!
Sound familiar? To top it all off, you browse through the stores only to find that meager offerings remain. The shelves are practically empty. What happens then? You spend too much money on something that your gift recipient neither needs or wants. Their gift wasn’t chosen for them...it was chosen out of desperation.
Once again, you remind yourself that you will prepare far in advance for Christmas next year. The next Holiday Season arrives and you repeat the same traumatic shopping experience.
How many of us have waited until the very last moment to buy a gift for a loved one, friend or business associate? There is only three months left until Christmas and those days will go quickly.
Christmas is one of the most stressful events of the year. The expense of buying gifts and the pressure of last minute shopping can all take the joy out of the most joyful time of year.
Here are some tips to take the stress out of Holiday shopping this year:
1) Make a list of the people you will be buying a gift for before you go - continued below ...