online or shops

sunday evening i did most of my christmas shopping without leaving my armchair.

bliss.

i ordered from amazon and marks and spencer and next. i know exactly the quality of the goods i am getting and they are easy to return if i dont like them.

i cannot see the point in wasting my valuable energy and time trailing round noisy brightly lit shops full of irritable people.

what about you???

We usually just go to the town and buy what we fancy. We usually have a list of the kind of thing we want to buy so we can just wander about and pick it up. If we don't see anything we'll buy it online. I like wandering around the town, going for coffee or to the pub but I don't like having to do it and feeling stressed. So we try the nice route then press the easy button if we have to.

I think I would see gift giving as pretty pointless if it was just joyless internet shopping. But that's just the way I approach it. It was only a few years ago I hated the whole thing and didn't celebrate it at all. But it reached a point that avoiding it was more stressful that just accepting it as an excuse for a cake and parties so I embrace the bits I like as much as I can. I totally understand why people do all theirs online though to reduce the stress levels.

i dont do much xmas shopping but i go to town and buy anything i need.

i dont think it matters if they are bought online or if i have trawled around the busy shops for hours. the recipient doesnt know.

the gift is chosen and given with love and that is what matters to me xx

LOL, I was talking about Dan and I getting some joy from the shopping experience not the people we're buying for!

Tbh, and this is going to sound horrible but this is how I feel, most of the gifts we buy are bought out of duty not out of love. I give gifts to my parents and other people throughout the year if I see something they'd like, they are given with love. The only reason we buy things at Christmas is because we had a load of grief from certain family members when we didn't celebrate Christmas. The way I see it is - it's something that doesn't matter to me but it matters to other people so I'll just go with it. I look for areas to enjoy it where I can (i.e wandering round the shops and drinking mulled wine) and tolerate the bits I don't enjoy so much (i.e stilted and overly formal family meals and party games).

Oh online all the way! Our nerest town has the most dire selection of shops, half of them seem to be charity shops (and really expensive for tat or I wouldn't mind them), hairdressers and mobile phone places. Leeds is the nearest place with any amount and the older I get the more of a country bumpkin I turn into and the more I dislike the crowds and traffic of a city!

we are just the same. we used to go up to london every november/december for a weekend and do the whole lot.

then we started going to norwich for the day (twenty mins from us).

now we are doing it online. lol.

i actually love the experience just not if i am stressed about buying stuff. i cant bear tons of people trying to look at stuff or queueing up in great long lines for one item.

so i like to do all my shopping early or online and then have a mooch around with hardly anything to do enjoying the atmosphere (and secretly laughing at people with massive lists and getting hot and flustered!!! arent i mean) xx

knitmylife wrote:we are just the same. we used to go up to london every november/december for a weekend and do the whole lot.

then we started going to norwich for the day (twenty mins from us).

now we are doing it online. lol.

i actually love the experience just not if i am stressed about buying stuff. i cant bear tons of people trying to look at stuff or queueing up in great long lines for one item.

so i like to do all my shopping early or online and then have a mooch around with hardly anything to do enjoying the atmosphere (and secretly laughing at people with massive lists and getting hot and flustered!!! arent i mean) xx

If you're mean then so am I I love it when there are people around and twinkling lights but I need to be able to step away and get out of there if possible. The town is a minute from the beach so we can just escape to some fresh air if we need to! I must have been nuts for all those year we'd hot the Trafford Centre *shudder*.

I was reading that its quicker to go to the shops than buy online.

marciared wrote:I was reading that its quicker to go to the shops than buy online.

I can see how that could be true. When I shop online I'm far more likely to try to find the "perfect" item rather than the item that's "good enough". If I'm shopping in the flesh then I think I have more realistic expectations and buy something that's nice but not necessarily the most amazing thing at the cheapest price. That's not to say I buy any old rubbish but I think I tend to be more open minded when I'm out and about rather than looking online where I'm more fixed in my ideas.

I do a mixture I don't mind walking round the shops christmas shopping early November when most people haven't really started thinking about it but it has to be a weekday preferably when the shops have just opened and its not busy - I don't do crowds lol
but I do like doing it online as its quick and easy
but what I have found has annoyed me ( annoyed me may be a strong word and I don't mean to sound ungrateful as I'm not ) but various members of the family have asked me what I would like as a present , I've started to give them a few ideas but as soon as I've said the first one they say oh we'll get you that then - now to me wheres the excitement in that they might as well not bother wrapping it up as I know exactly what I'm getting
its nice that I'll have something I want but I'd rather give some one a few ideas and let them choose what they would like to but so theres a bit of a surprise element
my sister in law has asked for vouchers which is fine but as a surprise I've knitted her a scarf , made a little gift box with some chocolatesin and decorated a notebook for her , I try to make sure everyone has got something to open that they don't know what it is

i agree there isnt a surprise then if they get you the first thing you asked for.

sunrisecards wrote:I do a mixture I don't mind walking round the shops christmas shopping early November when most people haven't really started thinking about it but it has to be a weekday preferably when the shops have just opened and its not busy - I don't do crowds lol
but I do like doing it online as its quick and easy
but what I have found has annoyed me ( annoyed me may be a strong word and I don't mean to sound ungrateful as I'm not ) but various members of the family have asked me what I would like as a present , I've started to give them a few ideas but as soon as I've said the first one they say oh we'll get you that then - now to me wheres the excitement in that they might as well not bother wrapping it up as I know exactly what I'm getting
its nice that I'll have something I want but I'd rather give some one a few ideas and let them choose what they would like to but so theres a bit of a surprise element
my sister in law has asked for vouchers which is fine but as a surprise I've knitted her a scarf , made a little gift box with some chocolatesin and decorated a notebook for her , I try to make sure everyone has got something to open that they don't know what it is

I agree with you.

I am not a fan of gift vouchers tbh to me they say "I couldn't be bothered to think of a proper gift"/"I don't actually know what you'd like" (which to me is a bit depressing. Or if the person has asked for them "I'd really prefer cash but don't like to ask"!

MIL just gives us a cheque now as we'd reached a point where they'd just buy stuff from our Amazon wishlists - so we knew what they'd bought us. Now we get a cheque for Christmas and birthdays all at once and that's that. We know it's unromantic but it works (especially now they're pretty much housebound due to her husband's illness).

When we were paying off our debts Christmas was sooooo nice. We'd get lots of little gifts from people and we really appreciated it, all those chocolates, toiletries and socks we couldn't justify spending money on were really well received! Cash is always good but there's nothing like a nice gift when you just don't know what it is!

its the biggest online shopping day today. Mega Monday.

It depends on what I'm looking to buy

I know the sort of things both side's of the family would like as I always ask each member for a Christmas Wish List or Santa Letter as we called it when I was little

Then aidded with the Wish Lists I wander off to the shops when it's not as busy, enjoy the decorations, lights etc.

I often get bits and bobs in early so I'm not all rushed at the last minute. Preparation is the key to being able to being all stressed at christmas. As Christmas for me is always a busy time.

I buy the odd thing on the internet usually something I can't get otherwise.

I also make a lot of pressie's through out the year which go towards birthdays and christmas.

I made hampers this year but needed baskets and jars and bottles... all done online, all cheap.