Let’s get this out of the way.
At this time of the year, I am that person that most of you despise with a passion.
As of last weekend, I finished up my Christmas shopping for 2013.
Now before you start bringing your pitchfork and torches to the Rocky View Weekly office building and set my car ablaze in the parking lot, let me explain why I’m done early.
Part of the reason that I do a lot of my shopping early is because of where all of my friends and family live in comparison to me.
With almost everyone I know living all throughout different locales in Ontario, I need to get everything sorted out ahead of time when it comes to shipping off my gifts, otherwise they will show up in their mailboxes at some point in the summer of 2014.
But the other reason I’m done early is because of the fact that I actually do a lot of my shopping all year round.
Now part of my rationale behind that is because I am just a little bit crazy, but I also tend to combine my shopping of birthday gifts with that of shopping for Christmas gifts.
It was a little bit different when I was living and working in Fort Frances, Ont., where the nearest big city was Duluth, Minn., which was about a three–hour drive from my house.
In those situations, visiting massive bookstores, sports merchandise shops and awesome used-record stores were quite rare, so I had take advantage of my opportunities.
Now that I’m close to Calgary, and the CrossIron Mills mall is a stone’s throw from my apartment, it’s not as much of a necessity to go on weekend buying sprees.
However, old habits die hard for yours truly, so I ended up using a Sunday afternoon to buy the last few things for my parents and complete my holiday shopping.
Since many of you are probably gearing up for some last-minute shopping, I figure I should pass along a couple of my pointers for picking up items for your friends, family, or co-workers if you are in a holiday gift exchange.
The first, and probably most important thing, is to know what it is the person you’re buying for likes.
For instance, if one of your friends is a sports fan, be sure to know what team they support, otherwise they may disown you if you buy them a shirt of their hated rivals.
I will admit I am guilty of not following this rule myself, as many of the Matthew Good CDs that I burn for people end up becoming drink coasters.
My second key to holiday shopping is to go in with a plan of attack, especially when visiting the malls.
Most of the time, I know there’s a couple of stores that I visit that are usually crazier than the others, so I tend to go into those first so I can get that out of the way.
Though if you happen to be going to any Apple stores in the weeks ahead, you might need to bring your own elbow pads as that store is usually insane even on a ‘slow-business-day.’
Now granted, many of you don’t have the time do very early shopping like I have been able to do, and you always run the risk of finding a gift that the person ends up getting in the five month span between when you bought it and when Christmas arrives.
But if you happen to get everything done before Christmas Eve, you will actually have a chance to relax while the throngs are battling one another in the stores for the last Sony PlayStation 4.
Personally, I will be visiting the mall on Dec. 24, but that will mainly be to watch the riots. Well, that and plan my attack for the Boxing Day sales, but that is a story for another time.
