For most of my life, I was that person who frantically drove down to local mall a few days before Christmas (sometimes even on Christmas Eve), spent an hour looking for a parking spot, and then elbow my way through crowds with a shopping list as long as my arm and the knowledge that I was never going to get all my shopping done in time, I was a terrible, unorganised person, and I was going to be stuck in this line until Christmas was over.
It was stressful.
Even when those smug, organised people told me I should start shopping earlier, or basked in the knowledge that they had finished their shopping in November (November!) I would refuse to give in to the idea that Christmas was something I needed to plan for all year.
I didn’t want to begin shopping earlier in the year, since it felt like the year went far too quickly anyway, and I always had more important things on my mind. Until the year that I gave in, made a list, stuck to it, and was blown away by how much easier my life was, and how much more I enjoyed the holiday season.
Suddenly, I was one of those smug people letting the unorganised people (most of my friends) know that I had completed all of my Christmas shopping, and all I needed to do was bake cookies, listen to carols and decorate my tree to get into the Christmas spirit. If I went shopping it would be because I wanted to, and not because I absolutely had to get into the stores before they closed at midnight, otherwise Uncle John wasn’t getting a gift and neither was my brother.
And it turns out I’m not alone. Once I embraced shopping early, it seemed like everyone else began doing it too. A recent survey by My Voucher Codes supports this, and the team surveyed 2,358 adult Brits to find out more about how they shop for Christmas, and the results were pretty interesting.
Almost half of the people surveyed said that not only do they begin shopping early, but they would even consider purchasing gifts, decorations, toys, gift wrap, clothes and cards on Boxing Day- that’s right, the day after Christmas. When asked why they wanted to start their shopping so early, a huge majority (70%) said it was so they could save money, which makes sense since you can save a ton (especially on Christmas-related goods) on the day after Christmas.
I used to go to the Boxing Day sales when I was younger, but now I like to chill, recover from Christmas and continue hanging out with family and friends. Luckily, there are plenty of other awesome sales throughout the year, like Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and personal sales from each store which can allow you to stock up and get all your shopping completed early. To read more about this survey, check out this article.