'Tis the season to be jolly, and it's also the time to go shopping for many Americans. From California to the Carolinas, Americans are braving crowds and long lines in stores as they gear up for a holiday season that seems to be starting earlier and earlier each year.
CNN.com asked readers how they handle the seasonal rush, what's on their wish lists and whether the season is turning them into jolly elves or grumpy Grinches. Here is a selection of the responses, some of which have been edited for length and clarity:
Melissa DelaCalzada, San Diego, California
The best time to start holiday shopping is just days before Christmas! I am the ultimate procrastinator when it comes to holiday shopping, since I'm not a shopper to begin with and I hate crowds. December 22-24 are GREAT days to shop for me, since I find that most people are done with shopping or have already left town for the holidays, so malls tend to not be overcrowded. Things like the "Day after Thanksgiving Day sales" (Black Friday) do not appeal to me at all. I just hate watching news clips of people running over others to get a sale item, let alone waiting in a mile-long line when it's really, really, cold out!
I was surprised to see holiday merchandise in stores in September! I walked in to a drug store to find a HUGE snow globe with Christmas music playing in the background ... in mid-September ... unbelievable!
C. Paulette McDowell, Lucasville, Ohio
I begin getting ready for Christmas in January. By November and December all I have to do is enjoy the music, the church plays, cooking with my family and hopefully snowy weather. I spend time watching holiday movies and visiting family. No hassle. If you really prepare you don't have to dread.
The worst present I ever received was clothing that in no way would fit my body. The best presents are anything from people that I know really love me. Pictures of grandchildren and great-grandchildren and nieces and nephews. Presents that are home made are good. The worst present I ever gave was money. I hate money for gifts unless it is a collection to give someone a large lump sum of money for a specific purpose.
Ken Wayne, Erie, Pennsylvania
Best time to Christmas shop: lunch time on the Internet.
Patricia Rose, Raleigh, North Carolina
I am so disgusted by the early shopping push that I refuse to go to any mall after Halloween. I like to enjoy Thanksgiving and then to think about Christmas. This year I am dropping my spending level on "things" and switching to homemade gifts or treating friends to dinner or the theater. The whole Christmas season is one big example of excess and crass greed.
Joanne Karaczun, Dormont, Pennsylvania
The best time to start shopping is anytime you see something that is appropriate. That can be in March, but I don't think we should be bombarded with all the Christmas HYPE until ... definitely AFTER Thanksgiving. As soon as Thanksgiving has passed, they start putting out Valentine Day crap! The best gifts I ever gave were during the Christmas that I made everything I gave. It was wonderful. The corporations (and advertisers) think that the success or failure of the economy depends on my Christmas purchases. I disagree. Why do they expect that [responsibility] to rest on the shoulders of the middle class ONLY? I don't see them taking any cuts. I try to spend very little on a meaningful gift and if it is not enough, I give them cash. Christmas to me is baking, good food, family and good friends. But ... THEY don't get it!!!
Carol Zanetti, Lincoln, Nebraska
I was disgusted to see Christmas displays in certain stores in a mall here as early as September. Still, I was looking forward to shopping for my two young granddaughters, but my disability check isn't coming this month due to an error at Social Security that may take months to sort out ... So, now I can't afford any rent, bills or even gas, much less buy anything for the girls. The up side is that I enjoy watching other people shop and I feel happy for them. My four-year-old granddaughter and I put up my tree last night. For some reason a music box from my mother -- which hadn't worked for two years -- all of a sudden started playing around 6 a.m. this morning. It reminded me all will be OK. It isn't about shopping. But try telling that to a little girl who loves Sleeping Beauty and wanted a princess play tent! Oh well ... Thank you and Merry Christmas to whomever reads this.
Rolf Hawkins, Burke, Virginia
I made the mistake of visiting a major local electronics superstore today, and upon walking in the front door, was immediately overwhelmed by the smell of fast food ... only to learn that it wasn't fast food, but the stench of unwashed bodies. Apparently many of the people crowding the store had camped out in the parking lot overnight. God, what a stink! Atmosphere was so thick you could almost walk on it. I've experienced many, many Black Fridays, but this was definitely a first!
Judith Dutton, Branson, Missouri
Alright, I admit it. I was there at 5 a.m. this morning at the local outlet mall clutching my Early Bird Coupons that granted me extra money off if I braved the elements earlier than the masses. I was running on about an hour of sleep, having worked late the night before, and I vaguely remember listening to the radio reports of violence whilst rabid shoppers fought over the last X-Box or Tickle Me Elmo. "Unbelievable," I thought to myself. And it is really. Unbelievable that this is what Christmas has brought us to -- the lowest level of the human race where selfishness over sales items brings us to blows -- or at least that is the way the radio portrayed it.
Here in Branson, little tourism community that we are, I was greeted with friendly camaraderie -- that feeling of, "Yeah, here I am in the shoppers anonymous club shopping at 5 a.m." We shared coupons, we secretly let people that we were standing in line with know where the best bargains were. I was greeted kindly and in a friendly manner in every store I went into, even if I didn't' buy anything. All in all, I spent too much money, and I am still kind of disgusted with that overall feeling of over-commercialization all in the name of the birth of the Savior. But I had fun this morning, rubbing shoulders with my fellow man. The things I bought my kids will bring them great happiness, and I even found a few items for yours truly. A great man once said, "Men are that they might have joy." This morning brought me a little bit of joy in my somewhat mundane existence. Even if it was just getting a bargain or exchanging coupons with the other red-eyed sleepless ladies in line. And the joy I will bring to the kids on Christmas morning? Priceless.
Chelsea Ditzler, Fredericksburg, Pennsylvania
My Christmas list:
DS games
X box games
Snow globes
Drum sticks
Jewelry
Magnetics (bendable)
New feather pillow
Phone jack in room
Lemony Snicket books 12-14
Key bored book
Cell phone
Art supplies
New bed spread (matching window curtains too)
Gum ball machine
Darwin Summerall, Lehigh, Florida
The only great deals out there are the few that are placed on the front of newspaper circulars, that you can't get, because they are sold out in the first 15 minutes. Think of it. This is the day that retailers know you are going to be out, so they don't have to do much to get you to spend money when you are in the mood already. I hope that this is a disappointing weekend in sales for them. Then they will have to do some real discounts on things they have, instead of those three LCD TVs for $500, to get people back before Christmas. I spent less this year than ever before in hopes that during the next few weeks, the retailers will get serious about their sales.
Karen Przybylski, Bloomington, Illinois
While we are not a family who normally ventures out on "Black Friday" to do our holiday shopping, my 10-year-old daughter and I decided we'd hit the local mall at around 11 a.m. to see what all the fuss was about. Just as we suspected, we found the mall too crowded with adults, teens, big kids and small kids. We found Santa in his usual spot, and we could tell from the hustle and bustle that the money was flying out of people's wallets (or onto their credit cards) at a steady and rapid pace. All to be expected, right? Well, what we didn't expect, and were SHOCKED to hear, was the foul language coming from the mouths of these shoppers. And it wasn't one shopper to another. It was from spouse to spouse, mother to daughter, daughter to mother, kid to kid. I was embarrassed for my daughter to hear the way one mother spoke to her child today, and felt sorry for him at the same time. It was horrible! The season of giving? Well, maybe, but I wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of that! We're big fans of the mall at Christmas, but on a day like today, we'd rather just stay home.
Aaron Hinkley, Houston, Texas
I never buy anything on "Black Friday" as it is also "Buy Nothing Day," a protest against consumerism. Even more importantly, the day after Thanksgiving is an excellent opportunity to sleep in which is more pleasurable than getting a bargain on something nobody really needed to begin with. I honestly don't think the sale prices are worth the stress and aggravation of having to fight off fellow consumers just to get them. Standing on line in the cold early in the morning just to save a few dollars isn't my idea of a good time. Christmas isn't about material things anyway. I think all this emphasis on sales and buying stuff sends the wrong kind of message to one another. Christmas is the celebration of the incarnation of the second person of the Holy Trinity. You would think that in a country with so many people professing to be Christians, the Christmas season would be treated more reverentially than the displays of consumerist excess you see on the day after Thanksgiving. It is as if after giving thanks for what they have one day, they have to run out and get more the next. Not only is it perverse, it is contrary to the Gospels' message.
Linda Banks, Boulder, Colorado
I am tired of seeing all the news on television about shopping! Not all of us are the big consumers you are portraying. Maybe it's entertaining to see people fighting their way into malls to buy things, but enough is enough. I buy gifts, but I am embarrassed by all the footage of people getting into fights for Playstations and Tickle Me Elmos. Please, stop contributing to the madness!
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