No one loves shopping around the holidays- the stores are crowded, the workers are cranky from dealing with so many people, the things that you want are picked over and it’s just overall completely unpleasant. The holidays are supposed to be the “most wonderful time of the year”, but when you procrastinate your holiday shopping, it quickly becomes the most stressful time of the year. Here are 4 tips to help you keep your holidays happy.
Set A Goal
Do yourself a favor and set a date for when you need to have all of your holiday shopping done. All year you know who you will be buying gifts for on the Holidays, so why do you wait until December 1st, to start buying them? Instead, try and have all of your Christmas shopping done by Halloween. You’ll have all of your gifts bought and wrapped right when the rest of the world starts to panic. Then you can go to the mall totally stress-free and just laugh at all of the chaos knowing that this year, you’re not taking part in it.
Order Online
Thanks to the internet and Amazon, you can get all of your holiday shopping done without every leaving your house. You might be thinking that buying online takes all of the fun out of holiday shopping, but that isn’t true. Climb into your coziest pajamas, get yourself enough treats to cause a cavity, fire up that laptop and start searching the web for things that your friends and family will love, you may never step foot into another store ever again.
Be An Early Bird
According to data compiled by the Simmons Market Research Bureau, 11.2% of Americans are out shopping from 12-4PM on the weekends and that number gets even higher during the holidays. But from 8-10AM that number drops down to 2.9%. If you’re one of those people who actually enjoys the atmosphere of shopping during the holidays but don’t like the rush, just do your shopping earlier in the day. You’ll still get to browse for presents while listening to Christmas music, you’ll just get there before everything is out of stock and people are elbowing you to get out of their way.
Schedule Your Kids Dental Appointments Well In Advance
Parents LOVE squeezing their kids appointments for dental cleanings, fillings, and wisdom tooth removal over the holidays. College kids are home for a few weeks, younger kids are on break from their schooling, and at least one parent has some time off. You can get all the kids scheduled back to back in one day, no one has to miss school or work, and you can still make time for holiday fun once the appointments are over. Unfortunately, as this is a VERY popular time to schedule appointments, the availability fills up fast. Parents calling for a last minute appointment over the break are rarely able to land an appointment and the waiting list grows quickly. To avoid having to find another dentist or having to wait for an appointment after the holidays, plan and schedule these visits at least two months in advance.
We stay open during the holidays because we know this is such a convenient time for our patients to come in. Make an appointment game plan for your family and call us in advance to be sure to maximize that holiday break!