Has anyone started christmas shopping yet??

I have and I'm already BROKE!!!! And still not done...

I wish my family was more into the meaning of the holiday....It is ridiculious that everyone I know EXPECTS things that cost soooo much. If it weren't for my young daughter I wouldnt be excited at all about the holidays

i have ocd.
so i need to make plenty of lists and schedules before i actually get to the stores.

I have been thinking about what I already bought since summer time.

what in the worlddd.
people in my family don't even know what they want for christmas in the summer.

my mom knows what she wants for every holiday...

my daughter talks about christmas and her birthday ALL YEAR!!(she is the most expensive)

My brother and sis are just getting money.

I have decided to do mine online. The Xmas crowd drives me crazy

I refuse to shop after thanksgiving. I hate even grocery shopping! All those years working retail has destroyed my love to shop

i looooooove shopping during holidays.
i love the music.
XD

I have never liked shopping. I hate it even more during the holidays. People just haven't learned to stay out of my way

Break the tradition. I did.
I got them all a gallon of windshield wash. They got the message and now they bake cookies etc. instead of buying expensive presents.

Yes i did just purchased myself a xbox kinnect




as for others

we try to do meaningful things in my family. We can't afford all of the expensive stuff.

For example....my sister is bed ridden so my son is getting her some slippers (for comfort) and I'm getting her a memory foam thingy for comfort.

My son just bought his first car (used but he bought it) and I am thinking of getting him something to spruce up the car.

My girlfriends family has an interesting tradition. She has four brothers and 3 sisters all with children. They all gather for a big feast and exchange gifts but the gifts have to cost nothing. Its either made or something totaly zany. I am giveing all the males scrap axles. the ladies a gasket that fits on them. I am sure they will all be excited when they feel this heavy steel carefully wrapped. I cant wait to see the disapointment on their faces.

I'll email you my list. It's a long one.

i'll get right on it.

Well with my family we use to for years do the buying gifts for each one.....

But for the last 10 years or so my brother started a Chinese Christmas Tradition... We have a big dinner at his house each person only brings one gift that is for either a woman/man we put the cost around $35 put all the gifts in the center and we draw numbers. This is for all the adults and the teenagers that want to join in. Everyone goes home with a gift and we have a fun game to boot...

Therefore the only ones I have to buy for is my kids and my granddaughter...

Makes a much more enjoyable Christmas for all. And since my kids are grown now I don't spend as much as I use to on them. We exchange a few gifts with each other.

To me Christmas should be more about being with each other not what they can buy you.

I have never charged Christmas gifts if I don't have the money I don't spend it... I don't believe going in dept all year for one day that most will forget the day after...

Ohh and so far I have bought one gift for my daughter so far...

Since my daughter is going to 1 year on Jan.18th I have been saving to go to this big toy sale and get all her christmas and birthday presents.

My moms side of the family we just draw names and buy for one person. Although this year I think we are going to play a gift game.

My dads side of the family is stuck up and too good for everyone so I think last year was the last get together. So now rather than all of us getting together once a year we never see each other. So now all ties are cut..

So since I have my daughter and one other gift to buy. No I haven't started yet.

Everyone Down in Mingleville Liked Christmas a lot
But the Grinch,Who lived just north of Mingleville,Did NOT!
The Grinch hated Christmas!The whole Christmas season!
Now, please don’t ask why.No one quite knows the reason.

It could be his head wasn’t screwed on just right.
It could be,perhaps,that his shoes were too tight.
But I think that the most likely reason of all,
May have been that his heart was two sizes too small.

Whatever the reason,His heart or his shoes,
He stood there on Christmas Eve,loving his blues,
Staring down from his cave with a sour,Grinchy frown,
At the warm lighted windows below in their town.

For he knew everyone down in Mingleville beneath,
Was busy now,hanging a mistletoe wreath.
“And they’re hanging their stockings!” he snarled with a sneer,
“Tomorrow is Christmas!It’s practically here!”

Then he growled, with his Grinch fingers nervously drumming,
“I MUST find some way to stop Christmas from coming!”
For tomorrow,he knew,all the Mingle girls and boys,
Would wake bright and early.They’d rush for their toys!

And then!Oh, the noise!Oh,the Noise!
Noise! Noise! Noise!
That’s one thing he hated! The NOISE!
NOISE! NOISE! NOISE!

Then the Minglers,young and old,would sit down to a feast.
And they’d feast!And they’d feast!And they’d FEAST!
FEAST! FEAST! FEAST!
They would feast on Mingle pudding,and rare Mingle roast beast.

Which was something the Grinch couldn’t stand in the least!
And then They’d do something He liked least of all!
Every Mingler down in Mingleville,the tall and the small,
Would stand close together,with Christmas bells ringing.
They’d stand hand-in-hand.And the Minglers would start singing!
They’d sing! And they’d sing! And they’d SING!
SING! SING! SING!

And the more the Grinch thought of this Mingle Christmas Sing,
The more the Grinch thought,“I must stop this whole thing!”
“Why,for fifty-three years I’ve put up with it now!”
“I MUST stop this Christmas from coming! But HOW?”

Then he got an idea! An awful idea!
THE GRINCH GOT A WONDERFUL, AWFUL IDEA!
“I know just what to do!” The Grinch laughed in his throat.
And he made a quick Santy Claus hat and a coat.

And he chuckled, and clucked,“What a great Grinchy trick!”
“With this coat and this hat,I look just like Saint Nick!”
“All I need is a reindeer…” The Grinch looked around.
But,since reindeer are scarce, there was none to be found.

Did that stop the old Grinch?No! The Grinch simply said,
“If I can’t find a reindeer,I’ll make one instead!”
So he called his dog,Max.Then he took some red thread,
And he tied a big horn on the top of his head.

Then He loaded some bags and some old empty sacks,
On a ramshackle sleigh And he hitched up old Max.
Then the Grinch said,“Giddap!” And the sleigh started down,
Toward the homes where the Minglers lay asnooze in their town.

All their windows were dark.Quiet snow filled the air.
All the Minglers were all dreaming sweet dreams without care.
When he came to the first little house on the square.
“This is stop number one,” the old Grinchy Claus hissed,
And he climbed to the roof, empty bags in his fist.

Then he slid down the chimney.A rather tight pinch.
But,if Santa could do it,then so could the Grinch.
He got stuck only once,for a moment or two.
Then he stuck his head out of the fireplace flue.

Where the little Minglet stockings all hung in a row.
“These stockings,”he grinned, “are the first things to go!”
Then he slithered and slunk,with a smile most unpleasant,
Around the whole room, and he took every present!

Pop guns!And bicycles! Roller skates! Drums!
Checkerboards! Tricycles! Popcorn! And plums!
And he stuffed them in bags.Then the Grinch, very nimbly,
Stuffed all the bags, one by one, up the chimney!

Then he slunk to the icebox.He took the Minglers feast!
He took the Mingle pudding!He took the Mingle roast beast!
He cleaned out that icebox as quick as a flash.
Why,that Grinch even took their last can of Mingle hash!

Then he stuffed all the food up the chimney with glee.
“And NOW!” grinned the Grinch, “I will stuff up the tree!”
And the Grinch grabbed the tree, and he started to shove,
When he heard a small sound like the coo of a dove.

He turned around fast, and he heard a small coo!
Little Cindy-Lou Goo, who was not more than two.
The Grinch had been caught by this tiny Goo daughter,
Who’d got out of bed for a cup of cold water.

She stared at the Grinch and said, “Santy Claus, why,”
“Why are you taking our Christmas tree? WHY?”
But, you know, that old Grinch was so smart and so slick,
He thought up a lie, and he thought it up quick!

“Why, my sweet little tot,” the fake Santy Claus lied,
“There’s a light on this tree that won’t light on one side.”
“So I’m taking it home to my workshop, my dear.”
“I’ll fix it up there. Then I’ll bring it back here.”

And his fib fooled the child. Then he patted her head,
And he got her a drink and he sent her to bed.
And when Cindy-Lou Goo went to bed with her cup,
HE went to the chimney and stuffed the tree up!

Then the last thing he took was the log for their fire!
Then he went up the chimney, himself, the old liar.
On their walls he left nothing but hooks and some wire.
And the one speck of food that he left in the house,
Was a crumb that was even too small for a mouse.

Then He did the same thing to the other Minglers houses
Leaving crumbs much too small for the other Mingle mouses!
It was quarter past dawn… All the Minglers,still a-bed,
All the Minglets,still asnooze when he packed up his sled,

Packed it up with their presents!The ribbons!The wrappings!
The tags! And the tinsel! The trimmings! The trappings!
Three thousand feet up! Up the side of Mt. Crumpit,
He rode with his load to the tiptop to dump it!

“Pooh-Pooh to the Minglers!” he was grinchishly humming.
“They’re finding out now that no Christmas is coming!”
“They’re just waking up! I know just what they’ll do!”
“Their mouths will hang open a minute or two,

Then the Minglers down in Mingleville will all cry Boo-Hoo!”
“That’s a noise,”grinned the Grinch,“That I simply MUST hear!”
So he paused. And the Grinch put his hand to his ear.
And he did hear a sound rising over the snow.
It started in low. Then it started to grow.

But the sound wasn’t sad! Why, this sound sounded merry!
It couldn’t be so! But it WAS merry! VERY!
He stared down at Mingeville! The Grinch popped his eyes!
Then he shook! What he saw was a shocking surprise!

Every Mingler down in Mingleville, the tall and the small,
Was singing! Without any presents at all!
He HADN’T stopped Christmas from coming! IT CAME!
Somehow or other, it came just the same!

And the Grinch, with his grinch-feet ice-cold in the snow,
Stood puzzling and puzzling: “How could it be so?”
“It came with out ribbons! It came without tags!”
“It came without packages, boxes or bags!”

And he puzzled three hours, till his puzzler was sore.
Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn’t before!
“Maybe Christmas,” he thought, “doesn’t come from a store.”
“Maybe Christmas…perhaps…means a little bit more!”

And what happened then? Well…in Mingleville they say,
That the Grinch’s small heart grew three sizes that day!
And the minute his heart didn’t feel quite so tight,
He whizzed with his load through the bright morning light,
And he brought back the toys! And the food for the feast!
And he, HE HIMSELF! The Grinch carved the roast beast!

I never get shopping done early. I'll probably be doing my shopping the week before christmas.. .

I am all done!!!