getting ahead of myself - a post about Christmas shopping

As you might have gathered if you have read this blog for a little while, I flippin' love Christmas. I started my Christmas shopping in April, and have been doing it bit by bit since then. By September I had managed to find a gift for everyone in my family and all of my closest friends.

In some ways it is a pretty neat idea to get it done so early:

*you can spread the cost throughtout the year instead of December being super tight
*if you're more organised you will panic less in the weeks leading up to Christmas
*if you enjoy it as much as I do then you'll spread the happiness throughout the year

I know there are some people who think that Christmas is over-commercial and just a way of making people fork out extra money for things that they think they need/want, and I guess I do agree with that to an extent, though I have never felt as though celebrating Christmas forces or pressures me to give gifts. I absolutely love giving the people I love little pressies, it fills me with warmth seeing people open a gift I have chosen especially for them.

{puzzle piece gift tag} {yarn gift wrap} {map-wrapped gift boxes}

{birds on yule logs} {woven rainbow ribbons} {snowflakes}

Most years I make gifts for people, and although I am still planning to do so this year I have also bought quite a lot of things. It's not like I have been shopping at the big stores who make millions over the festive period, I've been buying things from craft fairs, Etsy shops and straight from the artist - I'm pretty sure this is only a little further down from making a gift yourself, as it is still handmade by someone who genuinely loves what they do.

The problem with crafted and handmade products is just that there are so many of them that I know some of my favourite people would love, that I sometimes go a little overboard and buy too much. Us Brits don't like discussing money, but I'm pretty sure my "sensible" idea of spreading the cost of Christmas over a few months has backfired this year - I seem to have purchased waaay more gifts than I remember having done and my Christmas box is overflowing with goodies.

I guess some of them can be saved for 2012 birthdays or "just because" gifts, so in a way it has saved me effort in the long run. I just hope my backlog (futurelog?) of gifts won't continue growing, else I might have to find a new box in which to keep them all. Or maybe a cupboard?

What are your feelings towards Christmas shopping/gift giving?