How to Organize Holiday Shopping

Guide Note: How to Organize Holiday Shopping offers tips, tricks and advice on organizing your holiday gift shopping.

Table of Contents:

Introduction

Holiday shopping can add unnecessary stress to an already stressful season, but staying organized can help you beat most, if not all, of your Christmas-induced anxiety. At the very least, it can keep you from making a midnight shopping run to 7-Eleven on Christmas Eve for last minute gifts.

If you have a firm sense of what you'd like to spend on Christmas gifts, it will automatically limit the time you spend playing the part of harried shopper. Here are a few things to keep in mind as you create a holiday shopping budget:

Settle on a Figure: Decide how much you want to spend overall. You can break down this amount by person, family or gift when you create your gift-giving list.
Include Gift-Related Costs: Include gift wrapping, cards and shipping in your budget.
Budget Time: Time is as important as money. You need time to plan, time to save, time to shop and time to wrap all those thoughtful gifts.

Make a list, and check it twice. (Photo by Rodolfo Clix)

The key to organization is the almighty list. Even Santa keeps one. Here's what you should keep track of on one or more holiday shopping lists:

Part of staying organized is not overwhelming yourself with a list as long as Santa's. You don't need to eliminate anyone based on their naughty or nice quotient, but there are a few techniques you can use to whittle that list down to the essentials.

Cut the List in Half: Once you've listed everyone and their brother on your holiday shopping list, cut it in half. Who do you want to give gifts to versus who you feel obliged to give gifts to? When you give a gift, you should be giving it from the heart not out of a sense of social or professional obligation. If you must give gifts to co-workers or relatives you don't care for, limit the amount you spend on them.
Consider a Gift Exchange: If your family or circle of friends is open to it, consider a gift exchange with a set spending limit.
Buy a Family Gift: You don't have to buy mom, dad and all the kids individual presents. Buy a gift they can use together - a zoo membership, tickets to a family-friendly show or a restaurant gift certificate.
Assign a Price Limit per Person: Break down your overall budget by person. In the end, you may find that you spend more time than money on the people you care about most.

GiftBox: GiftBox is an online service which allows you to take charge of your holiday gift-giving by keeping track of your gift-giving ideas, your budget and what you've already bought. There is a charge if you wish to keep track of more than three holidays at a time. Otherwise, the service is free.
Ta-da Lists: A free, easy-to-use online list-making service from the folks at 37signals. If you want to get fancier in your list-making endeavors, check out the next step up in their organizational tools - Backpack.
Remember the Milk: A free, online list-making tool that integrates with Google Calendar.

Fig. 1: GiftBox "Gifts I'm Giving" Page

Note: If you prefer paper to your computer screen, Real Simple has created a downloadable PDF worksheet for tracking your holiday purchases.

Now that you know who you'd like to purchase gifts for, consider what you'd like to get them. It's important to brainstorm gift ideas before you hit the stores. It's much easier to come up with a shopping game plan if you know exactly what you need in advance. (You're also more likely to spend less money that way.)

If you're having trouble coming up with a killer gift idea, check out the following Mahalo pages:

Now that you know what you want to buy for everyone on your list, it's time to go shopping.

(Photo by Steve Woods)

Shop Online: Why go to the mall if you don't have to? As long as you have enough time to order gifts and have them shipped, you don't even have to get out of bed to finish your Christmas shopping. Be sure to check out Mahalo's Guide to Shopping Online if you're worried about internet security or privacy.
Create a Shopping Game Plan: If you must leave your house, create a game plan. Map out your route before you go, be patient in the parking lots and stay well-nourished.
Take an Early Vacation Day: Take a day off of work early in December and hit the stores. Get everything out of the way before the pressure's really on.
Create Gift Central at Home: Set aside a space at home to keep all of your gifts, wrapping paper and shipping supplies. Aside from the gifts you're trying to be sneaky about, try to keep the Christmas booty contained to one manageable area.

Wrapping and shipping your gifts can be the most tedious part of Christmas gift-giving, but wrapping doesn't need to be a huge production. Check out Mahalo's Guide to Wrapping Presents for some insider tips, and How to Ship Christmas Gifts for a rundown of the Christmas shipping deadlines for USPS, FedEx and UPS.