From a retailer with 20 years' Seasonal Experience:
Keeping It Real
1. No one that loves you wants you to go broke. Your budget should not send you close to your charge card limit. This is when you start getting surly and lose the holiday spirit.
2. No one wants your cold. No one wants your kids to be tired. You are spreading germs, not generosity.
On the Town
3. Your list should contain a short number of names and a few keywords for each. (For instance: Size 10, likes blue, likes NASCAR). Be flexible; the perfect thing will turn up sooner.
4. Delegate. For instance, take your address book with you, so other people can mail your packages. They have a system worked out. You have errand after errand.
5. If you shop during a weekday morning, you will find everything more easily.
Spouse Gifting
6. Your wife might want a new appliance, but she definitely wants something personal and thought-out.
7.Your husband might want a new boat/car/watch, but he's already picked it out. He wants your indulgence.
8. To save money, spouses sometimes agree not to buy each other anything. This is a mistake. You can limit the dollar amount, but you should not eliminate the giving impulse between two parties in a marriage. Besides, one of the two will renege, which creates an imbalance.
Quality Thought, Quality Time
9. Better one lasting/useful gift than a pile of junk. Make a memory, not a Goodwill box. (They don't need a plastic Santa either).
10. Just because they'll visit your aunt's house for Christmas, doesn't mean you owe them a sweater.
This message has been brought to you by a retailer. Now for a few words from the sponsor:
a. The salesperson/cashier did not author the store policy, so yelling at him/her will not do any good. Furthermore, it makes you look like a butt. Ask for a supervisor if there's a problem. Then step aside.
b. If the cashier asked for your I.D., say thank you and hand it over. They are protecting your money better than you are.
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