I am one of those people as well. I love it and why not? Its like the superbowl of shopping. I go by myself (no one wants to go with me or is invited for that matter I need to focus). I get my Ipod on and some comfy clothes. Thanksgiving night I make my game plan and roll out early with coffee, ads, and music ready for the big day. Personally, I love it and get very excited over all of the savings. Last year I missed getting a 200 dollar robot for 100 dollars and I was so mad that I almost cried.... Okay I did cry, but don't tell anyone. I am not sure about one big savings item, but get lots of BOGO items and stuff. I love the competiveness of it all! Good luck ladies!

I get the paper with all the ads in them on thanksgiving ... when the kids get home from mom's house with their bellies full we put in "home alone" and make our wish lists ... they put everything under the sun on them ... with my SD9 after the boys are done ... she gets a piece of paper, tape and scissors ... and cuts out the pictures of what she wants for her list and tapes them to the paper.... She waits and waits asking are you done with this one are you done with this one ... and she cuts it to shreds!!!

I live in a very busy congested area and it is extremelly difficult to shop on that Friday, it is so crowded and no parkings available. I did try it one year. I and DD wanted to buy a laptop for $100 at bestbuy. sounds good, right?

so we got up as you thought early and headed there at 9AM. lol

we got there, see no parking available, we parked like far away and walked 10 nminutes. and we got there we went to look for laptops. of course those deals were gone. we were told that they did in fact had 20 laptops but when store was open at 6AM the first 20 people got them. of course, stupid me. we said forget it, went out for breakfast and then went to visit grandma.

i never shop on that day, maybe i will this year, but not 3AM.

Except for gift cards I am finished with my shopping!!!! (Yes I know, I am the envy of every single woman here.) I did the black Friday thing once. Not my cup of tea. I don't really like to shop any way so that particular day is torture for me. We are ringing bells for the Salvation Army from 6 to 8 that night at Walmart so put a buck or two in the red pot for us.....Thanks!

I also do not like to wrap presents so most of our gifts are put in gift bags. My stupid nerve pain has changed a lot of things for me. I am not a Grinch, though, much to my husbands dismay. I love to spoil the kids a Christmas as much as I can. My DH is rather tight with money at Christmas so when we got the so called stimulus check I had him put it in a special account so that I could spend money and he wouldn't have to be bothered with balancing the check book with all the extra spending. I also did my own little savings thing so I would have extra. I don't go crazy by any means, a friend of mine spends tons of money. Opps....just remembered....I need stocking stuffers yet!

I wouldn't go for love or money but then I'm old. Used to love to shop but most of mine is done on the internet now. As for Christmas gifts, when you have 6 kids and 18 grands it's just not as much fun as it used to be. I can spend a lot of money and still not get anyone a lot.

I never have,and NEVER will.I HATE crowds.Going to be a slim Christmas this year anyways.

No way in h e double hockey sticks!!!!!

It took me over an hour and a half to get home tonight from work, only 25 mile commute. Theres no way I will willingly fight traffic on the street or in stores.

I used to be 'one of those women'. My daughter & I would get up early (okay, 4... and leave at 5) to wait in lines. We got lots of door prizes, mostly ornaments or decorations... snowglobes, bobbleheads, etc. I can't remember any great bargains but I noticed a few years ago that there wasn't much on sale that I desperately wanted enough to freeze my ass off and get into a fistfight over. The last year I went, there was a few fistfights and police called to one of the stores we were at. It wasn't 'fun' after that. I had fun back in the day, but maybe I'm just getting old or something because it doesn't really appeal to me anymore. Maybe if they have some really great bargains this year on things I really want to get, then I might find it in me to get up that early... maybe. If they only have 20, forget it.

My kids & I started a tradition several years ago, that on the day after Thanksgiving, I make a pie crust & fill it with all the leftover, de-boned turkey... gravy & stuffing. (and whatever else looks good, I make a big Turkey pot pie. The kids look forward to it every year. (DH doesn't like pot pie) and this year, my son is coming home for Thanksgiving (he called me last minute at 3am to ask for a ticket) so I will be spending Friday with him.

i don't like the crowds either. i had rather pay full price than fight the crowds. a few xmases ago someone here was trampled and ended up in the hospital.

DH and I talked about going, but I certainly don't want to take DD5 along. Since the rest of the kids are out of town, looks like I'm on my own. Which is probably good. I need to focus, and I get more done and more quickly on my own. So, wish me luck....

I hate crowds. My family has agreed to Xmas presents for adults only. so no, you woant see me at store tomorrow.

I had a few higher price items on our list this year for the kids. Unfortunately none of them are great deals at the stores near us. They are advertised as on sale, but are the same price as they were in October when I started looking for them! So I will be sleeping warmly in my bed as you all are out being pushed and running through stores! Good luck to you! Hope you get some great deals!

kkny did you mean gifts for kids only? not adults only?

we also decided everyone gets only one small reasonable gift, that's all. not like we used to.

I live in a Big Three (former big three, little three now lol) area and as you can guess we are in trouble here. My family are all engineers or managers in that field so obviously everyone is hurting one way or the other. My dad was forced to retire two weeks ago. Brother, uncle, BF still work but all hanging by a thread. no one is in a position to spend too much on gifts. We also decided to combine holidays since Christmas and Chanukkah are at the same time this year it is going to save us some buck. :)

Not a chance!

While I normally LOVE a bargain, Christmas is the one time of year when I'll put a 'convenience premium' on many items and will happily overpay a few dollars to save time and hassles.

Personally, I'm doing most of my shopping online and am planning a pretty modest Christmas. Hubby and I decided that our immediate family will do a service project for others this year instead of buying a bunch of junk for ourselves.

And for his large extended family, we do a great deal where each adult buys one gift that goes under the tree, then we draw numbers, pick a gift, then steal and swap them. (What do you call that again?) Anyway, we also put a couple of gag gifts in there that don't count (if you get a gag gift, you get to pick again) and everybody has a great time.

sweeby,
We call that game, "Dirty Santa". It's how we do gifts with my work staff at our holiday party. Only at this year's party, we are doing a Pink Elephant gift, which I have learned is where you re-gift something you've received but had no use for.

I was HUGELY successful in the wee hours of shopping this morning, and I'm happy to say I AM DONE! Only waited about 15 minutes or so to get into Best Buy, got the one item I went in for, and was out of there in less than 10 minutes. That was at 5AM.

I did wait an hour in line for theater tickets, but the deal was too great to pass up. Got lots of tickets to great shows for many on our list.

Kohls was UN-friggin-believable!!! I took a helpful hint from a customer that was leaving as I walked in and bought something at the jewelry counter, and they rang up the other couple things I bought. I only waited about 20 or 30 minutes there, as opposed to the 1-2 hour wait in the regular line.

My other stops were quick and relatively painless.

I finished EVERYTHING, and saved several hundred dollars...literally! I just added it all up. I got $1550 worth of gifts for $625! I'd say it was worth it. And I didn't see any "Grinches" either...yeah!

Hope everyone had a warm, filling holiday.

My sister and I did ok ... the key at kohl's is have someone stand inline while the rest run.... :)

My DD was in line while my sis and I ran around picking up the goodies ...

Off to Kmart at 5am door open at 6am ... got quite a few things out of the way already .... my kids are easy they send me links to online stuff ...

In my neck of the woods (which of course, Ima, you know where that is) a security guard was trampled to death at Walmart. I think the state should pass a law that, other than for discontinued models and going out o fbusiness stores, requires rain checks and discourages this madness that the stores encourage on black friday.

Well its all over the news... and I believe they should charge the people who trampled the man and the other employees with something ....

Besides you couldn't pay me enough to go to walmart any day of the week never mind black friday.

I agree those people should be charged! How do you not realize you are stepping on a human being? What a horrible waste of life to die just so some morons could save a few bucks.I'm so appauled!

From the news reports, it will be difficult to charge anyone criminally. The people in front say they were pushed by the peopel in back, who didnt realize a man was down.

Well,then maybe these stores should stop hyping black friday up like this to where people go so crazy! This is why I personally HATE Xmas.It's supposed to be about giving and love and peace.
Instead it's about the madness of material items.Makes me so sick.
I have seen more unity and coming together at Halloween.Xmas there are more robberies,car jackings,and senseless murders like this just over what??? So you can have your Xbox 360 and Ipods and whatever else.

What a way to die,making minimum wage at WALMART!

Yes,I'am fired up over this, but my anger isnt directed at you KKNY.It just makes me want to cry.These people only cared about saving money and this poor man lost his life.His family will now forever associate Xmas with his death and this incident.I cannot think of anything more heart breaking.

I feel terrible for that person, and their family too. I am not part of the Black Friday crowd. There is no big ticket item I want enough to participate in the madness. I didn't think about trampeling, just hard to find parking spaces, long lines, getting out of bed at the crack of dawn. But sorry to say I am not shocked to hear of a trampeling death but it makes me very, very sorry. We say that this is not what Christmas is about, but hey look, it boiled down to GREED in that situation. Still shaking my head....