Why am I doing (and finishing) my Christmas shopping in early November?

Why am I doing (and finishing) my Christmas shopping in early November?



Now some of you are probably already screaming at the title of this post and are probably considering doing one of two things: 1) clicking away because you don't think you can even begin to understand why someone would even want to be thinking about finishing their Christmas shopping in early November or 2) reading this whole post because you want to understand why on earth someone would be thinking a bit finishing their Christmas shopping in early November.

Well if you fall into the number 2 group then settle down and enter my (extremely early) winter wonderland of "Christmas in early November"

(insert Christmas music and all that jazz here)

Number 1: crowds

Now as someone with an anxiety disorder, I'm not good at dealing with large crowds at the best of times, but when it gets to the Christmas season shopping centres seem to turn into a scene from any dead rising game. It's just that rather than brains and human flesh they're all looking for that perfect present for their great aunt's best friends pet turtle.
Now I'm lucky in the fact that I only need a get presents for a few loved ones (one of the perks of being an introvert) but when stuck in the zombie apocalypse that is Christmas shopping going out to buy a few things can turn into hours what with getting stuck in queue after queue, the thing you want to buy may not even be in stock so you have to search around to find out something similar (which let's be honest, you won't) and worst of all, having shop assistants trying to get you to "upgrade" or in other words: get you to spend more money. Don't get me wrong, I understand that they hate asking as much as we hate being asked and over Christmas retail assistants really do deserve a medal but for now all I can offer is a virtual round of applause and I'd like it if everyone were to join in (i.e. I mean go down to the comments section below and spam the applause emoji 👏 👏 👏).
I however by getting everything done in early November am able to avoid all this as many people are only just drawing up lists of what to do buy who (I've had my written for a good few weeks) and haven't even thought about stepping out into the world to physically purchase the items and retailers are other just starting their Christmas promotions so repeating the same Christmas speech to us customers is yet to become muscle memory.
Some of you may say "but Abbie, if you hate the crowds that much why don't you just do it all online?" well I personally prefer to see what it is I am buying to make sure I'm 100% happy with my purchase (that and I really enjoy wrapping so by buying a person I can wrap items just how I like).

2) University

Now that I am officially a university student, I get to experience the joy of university assignments and reports. I happen to have been given 2 not so much long, but detailed reports of 1500 words each, both due just a week or two before Christmas (ah lectures, always full of Christmas spirit).
The last thing I want to be doing while writing about the differences between different brands of cornflakes (which you'd be surprised by) and my poor nutrition is having to also plan and do all my Christmas shopping; time which could be spent on me working towards achieving firsts.
You might also be thinking that I could do my shopping after I've finished but let me refer back to my first point of the Christmas shoppers zombie apocalypse that would have been started by now. That and after finishing those reports I'm going to need at least 2-3 days of lying in bed, playing PlayStation and not doing an awful lot.

3) the joy of feeling prepared

Very often my anxiety will make me feel like I have absolutely nothing prepared or that I haven't done enough, but me doing my Christmas shopping now will hopefully (finger crossed 🤞) help me feel more prepared when it does come close to the festive season. Granted I'll be looking at what I have bought every day just to make sure that I have got everything in place but I'm planning to have a checklist right next to them in my hiding place so I can check that instead (can you tell I like to be organised?).
And although this may make me sound like I'm a bit of an arrogant sod, I do like the idea of me being calm and prepared while everyone else around is running around like headless chickens, but I think that's because I rarely get to feel that very often.

So that's the story, the story of why on earth I'm doing (and finishing) my Christmas shopping in November. Let me know in the comment, am I being a bit crazy, or really well prepared?

And as always

Be happy, be healthy, from Abbie xx. 

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