Perhaps my response is not too useful, since I do not have children or any one else who expects more than one small present, but I like shopping when it's officially holiday season. Even though I don't usually end up buying anything made or packaged specifically for the holidays, I do get inspired. Plus all the winter clothes give me good ideas for the people getting homemade knitting.

I don't have kids, but I always give books as christmas gifts to my nices and nephews. I'm sure they love them! JK but I feel they get enough toys as it is. If I do buy toys, which I'll sometimes do, I tend to get something that is more prone to imagination, legos, teddy bears, pretend kitchen set, things like that.

I don't have children, and all my nieces and nephews are grown and spread out over the country, so we rarely exchange gifts, so it's just my parents and siblings. I usually make things for them. My mom gives me pecans she picks up from the trees at my grand parent's farm. So, not a lot of holiday shopping for me.

Yeah, no kids here, either. My family members tend to get magazine subscriptions (Consumer Reports for the Bro-in-Law, Smithsonian for my history teacher Mom) and something small/cool in addition (a windup metal house with caterpillar legs was a hit, one year). I've also started hitting Etsy for fun individual gifts, which makes me feel good about supporting craftspeople and individuals, instead of just buying something from a Big Box Store.

Subscriptions are already ordered, but the other things, nope. I haven't even considered what I'm getting anyone, yet, except my baby niece (Sesame Street CD, anyone?).

we do gift exchanges in my family so that you're only buying for one person, plus individual gifts for our parents. we do the same on my husband's side. we don't buy gifts at Christmas for nieces & nephews, choosing instead to focus on them for their birthdays. and my husband and i rarely exchange presents. that being said, i hate shopping all year and especially refuse to do it between Thanksgiving and New Years. If i have to make a last minute selection, it's coming from Etsy or Amazon.

I am ALWAYS on the look out for gifts with a purpose. If I see something in July that someone would like for Christmas, then I get it then and hold onto it. I want all of my gifts to have meaning and be special. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.
For the kids...relatives and Santa are on that detail.

I voted, just getting started, but really, I should have chosed, lots to make still! I don't have much else to buy and most of it I know exactly what I'm getting. But I have quite a few gifts that I need to make!

I love Christmas, and Christmas shopping, so I start early so as to enjoy it longer! In a large family, it also helps to spread out the expense. I like to save the wrapping for closer to the time though, just for the holiday spirit!

Oh, and something else.
As another comment mentioned, magazine subscriptions aren't a bad idea either. Including ones for the kids. Great ideas for little ones (and the entire family) are memberships to the local zoo, museums, aquariums etc. Or in the summertime (perhaps a birthday?) Summer camps!

Oh, and etsy is my absolute favorite for unique, one of a kind gifts.

We don't exchange gifts with friends or family, but we do invite people over for meals, wine, conversation, etc... At our age (40's-50's), we have what we need and the pleasure of a guest's company far outweighs any material item.

I'm done. I'm rural now and have no intention of driving 1.5 hours with 3 screaming kids to get to decent shopping. I did all my shopping online. More and more online shopping is becoming available in Canada. It's awesome!

Whoops, voted "halfway there" but I'm actually more than that, I'd forgotten. It's just my sister and her husband, my folks, my grands and my aunt and uncle, though so not that hard to shop. I might do little things for friends if I find something that cries out to me, but maybe not.

I love shopping around the holidays but I prefer to be done by Thanksgiving so that I can enjoy just shopping and not have to stress about fighting the crowds if I don't want to.

My family is very low-key about the gift giving as none of us really needs more "stuff". We like to focus on the holiday as a time to be with family, not a time to spend money and acquire things. People usually give a few books, but mostly it's consumables like home baking or special artisanal local products. This works well because there's no little ones yet, but even so, I think we'd really try not to overdo the present angle of the holiday.

This attitude also makes shopping super easy to do in a single weekend, usually in early December.

I love Christmas, and I love starting to think about gift-giving and wrapping paper plans early. But it's not just because I love it. I think it's helpful to spread the cost of buying gifts out, so I do like to start early.

I do think this approach can lead to budget bending a bit though. It seems harmless to pick up something extra here and there when you're spacing it out over a few months. But I'm aware of it now, so I just aim to be careful and stick to my plans.

I also find the shopping experience much more pleasant before the craziness of the December rush rolls around. Though more and more I'm ordering online, so that's less of an issue. Obviously spacing things out guarantees shipments will arrive on time though.

So many reasons!

This may sound nerdy but I shop all year long. I constantly send myself emails of ideas I have even in the middle of spring. This way, when it gets closer, I have not only an idea but something really special. I don't have any kids of my own but I have a brother and sister who are 5 and 7 so shopping for them is really fun. I also shop for family and friend and not always the same ones every year. Even if someone isn't going to get something for me I always consider my friends around the holidays. My boyfriend is probably the toughest because I have too many ideas! I always love a good surprise, something handmade, and accomplishing all of that on a small budget can be tough. Etsy.com, Thinkgeek.com and Uncrate.com are great options for him and my other male friends in my opinion. I agree that I wait til two weeks or so before to start my wrapping. I like to do it with classic Holiday music on and I HATE that it comes on earlier and earlier each year!

I absolutely DREAD the holiday season. Ugh!

There are people in my family who are just about finished already (sometimes even by summer), and it sounds great. In fact, it sounds more financially feasible because it it a major drain on the wallet to have to buy buy buy at one time.

I'm also very poor this year so it will be a struggle.

I hate shopping for people. I don't know my family very well anymore. There's also the struggle with "well are we even going to see them this year? To buy or not to buy?" I've gotten gifts and ended up not seeing them and hanging on to the gifts for a few years until I give up and just keep it.

There's also "but what if they get me something this time and I didn't?"

There is also my parents that spend stupid amounts of money on things that I don't want/need, and when I don't have the money to return the favour, things get really awkward.

I also don't like getting people "stuff", because everyone these days wants to declutter.

I HATE CHRISTMAS!

Melle, it might be time for you to have a convo with your family about what you would like Christmas to really mean. I agree with you about the obligation to buy a gift. It is a joyless exercise and often a financial drain. If the conversation might be too awkward, make a donation to the charity of your choice and send each of them a card indicating you have done so. Very few folks will be small-minded enough to complain they you've chosen to gift a charity instead of them.

The commercialism of the winter holiday season and the feeling that you have to outdo everyone with the most fabulous gift in the world inevitably engenders envy, guilt, overspending and disappointment.

Happiness isn't found at a mall, in a catalog or in a store display - I would hope that AT of all places would be a place where we could share ways to escape, or at least minimize, the crass commercialism of the Holidays.

having a deadline like this makes it feel like a chore, which i dont think it should be or is. i find stuff little by little, mostly between now and christmastime.

I try to be practical about Christmas shopping, and not make it an event. I like to buy decorations, especially swapping out bulbs each year for my mom's tree. My BF has two children, and we've already agreed that we will decorate a tree with them this year and estimate we'll get them about 5-6 gifts in total. That'll include a chalkboard/magnet board, a Cabbage Patch Kid, and a pair of skates for her, and a tricycle, Tonka truck, and building blocks for him. We'll be joining families and households next year and I don't even want to start off with a truckload of toys going into it. I'll go start a layaway this weekend at Kmart, and we'll have everything out by Christmas. The rest I'll reserve for some grown up shopping on Black Friday- my one real holiday shopping indulgence!

We stopped giving store-bought gifts a few years ago - the only purchases now come from my parents, who "stock-up" me and my siblings with everything/anything a university student could want or need - mostly, that's in the range of pens, highlighters, movies, and food.

The rest of us make gifts, or swap coupons: One brother gets beer bread, one candied bacon, and the sister ... yet to be decided on, lol. Dad a coupon for cleaning his truck, and mom a coupon for weeding the flower garden throughout the summer.

We're also very fond of giving tickets ... to the theatre, concerts, etc. Something to do together, rather than something that sits on the shelf.

Melle,

I second Obleak1's advice. A few years ago, I was feeling very down about Christmas (I was unemployed, but still expected to buy gifts for extended relatives, their kids, etc...). The families were all given the gift of a charitable contribution to Heifer International (the kids thought the pictures of little chickens and cows were cool).

The holidays aren't about commercialism, but about bringing joy to others and enjoying the "glow" of joy from others. Sometimes, giving the gift of NOT giving in a material sense can give people pause, and the recipients might reevaluate the meaning of the season.

No way I can shop for my domestic partner early -- he tends to buy anything he wants without consulting with me, so we'd end up with duplicates. He's the main gift recipient in my life, only a few token gifts to others, and it has to wait until about now. (Plus his birthday is in October AND he earns literally 3 times my salary, AND he's into high tech toys and Blu-Ray disks (which he pre-orders) so it all gets rather complicated.)

During the weeks before Thanksgiving, I will try to start to list things MIGHT get him, and I will begin to craft gifts for my co-workers. This year I also plan to make my own holiday cards -- I only need about a dozen, so I can get kind of fancy and it feels more like a little gift than Hallmark would. (I did it the last couple of years, and I try to make my handmade cards include a component that turns into a tree ornament. So it IS a little gift.)

My husband and I have pretty much eliminated gift exchanges with our families and each other. It's cut down on stress - and clutter - in our lives. The biggest problem is figuring out what to buy our three-year-old daughter. But that's actually a fun problem to have!

Instead of exchanging gifts, my husband and I buy ourselves a nice piece of artwork. This year we are buying a beautiful painting from an artist- friend of ours. We will get a gorgeous addition to our home AND we will support the local creative economy here in Portland, Maine!

I love the Christmas season (lights, trees, music, food) but am not a big fan of the whole gift thing--seems like a waste of energy and resources especially when people who have all they want (or can buy it) get even more. Except for my mom and a few neighbors (who are like family to us--and these gifts are homemade bread and preserves and such), we really don't do the gift thing anymore, preferring to spend the time, energy and money on a couple of parties and other holiday celebrations. It is far less stressful and makes for a more enjoyable holiday season.

I prefer to shop online as I don't have to join outrageous cues or parking stations or frustrated shop assistants. They all seem to take the joy out of the holiday season and more specifically Christmas.

I have backed up my own opinion by creating an online store which is affiliated to A very well known and trusted company.

My store is found at http://top-selling-christmas-gifts.blogspot.com

I hate having to buy stuff at christmas as it's always down to 'well, this will do' when I run out of time or energy. My GF is frustrating as she never shops the rest of the year, so when she's doing xmas shopping she spots lots of stuff she wants and buys it for herself. Every year I have to tell her to take stuff back which I have already bought her! At least I know I am choosing the right stuff :-) She is now banned from buying herself anything during the season!

I try and buy a lot of books as I love books and can find good stuff for people, plus they can be passed on and shared without guilt, I hope.

We intended to make our gifts this year, but with a DIY kitchen remodel hopefully ending before xmas, I think I may have to just go shopping. My 5 year old wants to make books for people, so we'll still probably do that, but I haven't been getting to my knitting and stuff...too busy ripping up floors and tearing down drywall.

I am curious if I am the only one who stops buying more expensive presents for couples who have children. I'm not saying the start getting nothing - just I'll spend more money on the children than the adults.

Considering I buy for less than ten people since I've limited to immediate family, I'm about one-third done. I stopped buying for every uncle, aunt, cousin, etc since usually they just end up feeling bad since sometimes they don't have the money to spend on gifts back.

Since now unemployed I just have planned gifts for my mothers, which I had bought before I was unemployed.

I really dislike that the commercial Christmas season is now starting right after Halloween. I think it shouldn't start until at least the day after Thanksgiving, and it was just a few years ago that was the case. I especially think that it shouldn't be a year-long effort. I fear that this kind of focus on Christmas makes it take over any other gift giving opportunities, and makes the rest of the year a drought of giving and showing caring just so that there can be a monsoon at the end of December. I'm not ok with that.

normally i start buying when i find out which family i'll be staying with. it would get stupid expensive if i bought something for every single person.

this year i am very fortunate. work sent me to Hong Kong, and i've been buying loads of cheap gifts here. jewlrey from the jade market, purses & toys from the night markets, it's been fun-- but the haggling is exhausting! so while i think this will be my cheapest christmas ever, it is the most exhausting.