Do’s and Don’ts of Holiday Shopping

Here is my list of do’s and don’ts for the holiday season. This includes black friday, valentines day, halloween, thanksgiving, and christmas. Pretty much any holiday that is commercialized.

DO:

• Plan for long lines – Aka, leave an extra hour or two at the end of when you plan to be done just to accomodate for long lines/traffic etc.
• Wear comfy shoes – So if you’re standing in the return line at Walmart for 19 minutes and 30 seconds, then at least your feet won’t die. This also comes in handy for the mile walk back to the farthest parking spot in the lot.
• Bring snacks if you plan on shopping all day – It beats having to pay extra money for snacks, and cuts down on horribly caloric snacks.
• Let people go in front of you when you are driving –  It won’t slow you down that much, and it probably saved them their sanity.
• Tip better at restaurants –  Think of it as them giving up their holiday weekend with their families and loved ones to serve you.

Don’t:

• Be a jerk –  No one likes people who push, shove, and demand their way everywhere they go. Be courteous, everyone else is in the same boat you are, and you being a jerk to people isn’t making your life, or their life any easier.
• Take up two parking spaces – parking is bad enough around the holidays, so if you can’t drive, DON’T. (This happened to me while I was shopping today. I wish i was a cop so i could give them a ticket.)
• Pull up in your car so someone else can’t turn right out of a driveway – Ok, this one seems obvious to me, but apparently not to everyone else. If someone is waiting to turn right out of a driveway, and there is already a line of people in the right hand lane coming to about the driveway, stop BEFORE the driveway, and let the person turning right get in front of you.
• Wait until the day before a holiday to do your shopping – Unless it is literally the ONLY time you have to go shopping, don’t. You’ll save yourself a ton of a stress.
• Go driving in downtown areas in the whole week before a major holiday (Christmas) – I was out shopping today, and it probably took me an hour a half to drive what normally would have taken a half an hour. Not fun.

Well, there is my incomprehensive list of holiday Do’s and Don’ts. Most of these apply other times too, but especially during the holiday season. Happy shopping (or not shopping).