Beating the Holiday Rush

'Tis the season of giving. The list is long. The lines at the malls are longer. The holidays can indeed be a pain at times.

But not to me.

What I have been doing for the last several years is to make my Christmas list as soon as the New Year kicks off. I have around 80 names there. Mostly family and friends. Plus inaanaks. Almost all names are staples. With a few additions when balikbayan relatives are home for the holidays. And one or two taken off the list when a family member passes away.


The best time to start your Christmas shopping is during end-of-season sales that all happen early January. You get to purchase nice presents at half the price if you're lucky. For my young recipients, I almost always buy from Bayo and Big & Small Co. Then there are mid-year sales. There are great finds at Debenhams, Rustan's, even Zara sometimes. The trick is to go when the sale period is almost over and markdowns can go up to 70% off. I gift-hunt in between sale seasons in Greenhills, Dapitan Arcade, Shoemart, Crossings, Toy Kingdom and others. Then there's the big Podium sale first week of October and this is where I shop for the senior citizens in the list, particularly in Living Well. This is usually my last stop for the year.


Come December, all I have to do is take out my shopping bags, wrappers, ribbons, gift tags. And it's a wrap.