Let's Get Ready For Christmas Early

Now that we have all the back to school shopping done and the little darlings are on their way to the bus -- wait, you haven't finished your back to school shopping yet?  What are you waiting for?  Run like a bunny and get on it, and then come back here when it's all done.

**musical interlude: "Come and listen to a story 'bout a man named Jed / A poor mountaineer, barely kept his family fed ..."

All done?  Good.  First things first, I always say.

I know you think you're the only one contemplating it right now, but take a look at some of the bloggers already talking about Christmas shopping:

• Jodie Z is finding bargains on Etsy
• Synthesisblog is urging shoppers to start early for the benefit of the U.S. economy
• Pursuing Holiness is swearing to start early:

"Heh - Amazon is having a Blu-ray 3-for-2 Sale. There aren’t 3 movies that I want, but I may do some Christmas shopping. Every year I say I’m going to do it early and every December 20 I start to freak out because I’m not even close to being finished. Maybe this is my year for getting it right."

• Windy City Chat reminds that early shopping helps save money
• And Stephanie Klein at Greek Tragedy mentions "Christmas in July"

Last year I ordered holiday cards in August; labeled, stamped and stuffed envelopes in September; and had everything ready to drop in the mail by October.  Sensing that mailing holiday cards in October might mark me as, I don't know, weird eccentric, I held off until the end of November, but the day after Thanksgiving I was outside stuffing the mailbox, you betcha.  There is absolutely no reason to wait until the last minute to order Christmas or Chanukah cards, since it can all be done online (and preferably through FeeFiFoto, but nobody's pushing or anything...)  In addition, there are such good sales and so many unique gifts out there, there's no reason not to get at least some of your Christmas shopping done during the summer when there's much less going on than in the school year.  I already have a sizable wish list accumulating on Amazon.

And for anyone whose life doesn't begin and end with the school year, there's still no reason you shouldn't think about doing some of your holiday shopping now.  The Christmas holiday season is filled with busyness, in case you haven't noticed: parties to attend, plan or avoid, family to try not to murder celebrate with, cookies to eat raw bake, trips to passive-aggressively avoid planning schedule, office celebrations to embarrass your self at enjoy, stockings to knit buy...

Granted, you can't set up the tree this early because you'd have pine needles in your boxer shorts or something -- well, I really have no idea, because I've never done a Christmas tree, but there'd be some level of agitation involved somehow.  And you can't bake cookies this early because you'd eat them and have to make more they'd be stale.  But you can order cookie tins with your favorite photos for when you finally do get around to baking cookies in December. 

Check out the Scrolling Peppermint counter: as of the publication of this post there are only about 135 days left until December 25.  Start thinking about Christmas gifts now.  You'll thank me later.

For more on making your holiday shopping less stressful:

Avoiding Lines By Going Online

The Right Gift For The Right Recipient

Comments

[Renee]

I have not even begun back to school shopping never mind thinking about x-mas...I don't know how you keep it so together.

[feefifoto]

Let's just say I'm better at telling other people what to do than actually doing it myself.

[Nessa]

Gawd this reminds me, I still have to post my Christmas money maker post. I'm sooooooooooo behind I could cry.

UGH

I got the book yesterday btw, I smacked so with it and told him "read it" so he uh..is lol.

Nessa

[Rita]

fee,

One day, I'd love to see you write a blog with only the cross-outs, and the rest gone. You'd have to change your blog name to "hysterical blog" or maybe feefihysterico.

Great post - even though it is AUGUST!

Rock en Rita

[feefifoto]

I consider that a challenge. I'll start thinking about a post along those lines (no pun intended). it could be about what you think versus what you say ... interesting idea.