It's that time of year again, folks. The time to open your wallets, break open the piggy banks, and succumb to the year's biggest shopping season. You knew it was coming: the bustling crowds, the annoying traffic, the pressure to find every gift on your list, huge credit card bills, and a giant black hole in your bank account that seems to suck the money out of it as soon as you deposit it. Yes, the holiday season is upon us once again.
On one hand, Christmas is a joyous holiday, filled with cheer and good spirits. We spend time in front of our television sets watching the much-anticipated Christmas specials that they show every year, building snowmen, listening to Christmas carolers, and decorating our dwellings with festive decorations and lights. Then, we top it all off by packing the family into the car and making the trip to grandma's house for a delicious feast.
On the other hand, it's also the only time of year that I dread shopping. It's the time of year that seems as if everybody and his or her mother are out on the road, and traffic seems to increase exponentially. What once was a fifteen-minute drive now becomes a half hour. When you finally reach your local shopping mall, you spend twenty or thirty minutes driving around the parking lot looking for a place to park. All the while, hoping your festive holiday music will drown out the sound of blaring horns and raging drivers as they fight over the closest parking spot. When you finally get inside the mall or specialty store, you pray that the chaos will somehow stay outside.
Then you look around and realize that your prayers have probably fallen on deaf ears. As you scramble through the stores, dodging carts and giant bags filled with merchandise, snatching up gifts for loved ones and co-workers, you become overjoyed at the possibility that your shopping is almost complete. Then you see the lines. It seems that no matter what store you go into during the holiday season, you're faced with the dreaded checkout lines. They're not short, either, not even the express lanes. For each checkout stand, it looks like two dozen people are waiting to make their purchases. Not only that, but you know whichever line you go into, is going to have someone in it who decides to hold the line up. Whether it's someone too busy texting or chatting on a cell phone to put their items on the counter in a timely manner, someone who needs a price check or replacement item, or someone complaining about their receipt, it's always the same. After finally making your own purchase, you head out to your car only to discover you have to wait in bumper-to-bumper traffic because each aisle is filled with stopped cars waiting for parking spaces. This is when you begin to wonder why you actually put yourself through all of it each year.
There is an answer to this problem, my friends. If you are tired and fed up with holiday traffic, crowded stores, and sore feet, all you have to do is sit down in front of your computer and the internet will take care of the rest. Not only is Christmas shopping online less time consuming, it's also less stressful. There are no lines, no heavy bags to lug around, and no horde of fellow shoppers rushing about. In the last several years, I've done about seventy-five percent of my holiday shopping online and I've been happier for it.
Whether you are buying for adults or the kids, you can find almost everything on your list somewhere on the internet. Another plus to online holiday shopping is that some companies offer online deals and discounts that aren't available in stores. Just be sure to spend a few minutes searching to find the best deals. Also, review each site's return policy, shipping information, and payment options before making your purchases.
A good place to start is department store sites. Macy's, Bloomingdale's, JcPenney, Dillard's, Nordstrom's, and Sears all have available online shopping. Besides visiting your favorite department store online, there are many other sites to choose from for your holiday shopping.
To get great deals visit Overstock.com where you can choose from home dcor, sports equipment, apparel, electronics, jewelry, books, bedding, and bath products. It includes tracking info on your purchase and standard shipping is $2.95 in the continental US. Shipping to Hawaii, Alaska, and international is extra. The site accepts Paypal and major credit cards as payment.
To satisfy the little ones, you can purchase toys and the like at any number of online retailers. Target and Wal-mart both offer online ordering or you can head to www.etoys.com and www.toysrus.com for all your toy and game needs.
If lingerie for your wife or girlfriend is what you're looking for, the online stores of Victoria's Secret and Frederick's of Hollywood are the sensible places to look.
For the electronic buffs, there is www.bestbuy.com and www.dell.com. There you'll find everything from computers to televisions to DVD players and everything in between.
Fragrance.net offers discount prices of up to seventy percent off on designer perfumes, skin care, hair care, aromatherapy, and cologne. New customers can sign up to get a 10% discount on their order. They accept Paypal and credit cards as payment. Sephora.com also provides many beauty products from many top companies. BathandBodyWorks.com is another reliable site to shop for bath products at. You can choose from their classic scents to their contemporary ones or even try a holiday collection. For luxury bath products, www.gilchristsoames.com can provide you with your needs.
If you are shopping for someone who enjoys cruelty-free natural products, www.pacificaperfume.comoffers fabulous items that are free of parabens, propylene glycol, phthalates, and lead wicks. You can choose from soy candles, body butter, spray or solid perfume, and soap. These products are not tested on animals.
After checking out online specialty stores, if you still haven't found everything on your list, there is always Ebay, Amazon.com, and iOffer.com to check out. Just remember to check a seller's feedback rating and shipping information before making your decision.
Whichever site you choose, you can do so from the comfort of your own home in half the time it would take you to tackle the shopping mall. The only downside to online holiday shopping is the additional time on the treadmill to burn the calories you would have used up in the stores. But hey, we knew those extra workouts at the gym were coming anyway, didn't we?