After-Thanksgiving Sales

I never really been a part of the after-Thanksgiving shopping crowd. But, for many years, my mother and I hit the sales at 7 a.m. the day after Christmas, what Canadians call Boxing Day. We'd look through all the sales papers on Christmas afternoon, decide what stores we wanted to hit, and plan out our route. I'd pick her up early and we'd head for the first stop. We'd get lots of gifts at half price for the next year. We were quite the veterans.

One year, my mother was taking care of her sister who was dying of cancer and she was living in Canada for an extended period of time. She told my Daddy that he should go shopping with me the day after Christmas. He told me to develop the plan and he'd ride along.

We hit Macy's first, joining the crowd of determined women. Dad and I split up - I was looking for ornaments, he was looking at the wooden nutcrackers. About 20 minutes into the shopping, Daddy reappeared at my elbow.

"Honey," he asked, "where did you get that basket you're using?"

"Here, Dad," I offered, and dumped the 6 or 7 ornaments in one basket sitting around the base of the tree I was near into another and gave him the newly emptied one. "You just use one of these."

"Wow! Are you sure this is okay?" As he asked the question, he glanced around and caught sight of several women indiscriminately dumping to claim a basket for their own shopping. He smiled at me and began unloading his arms into the basket.

A few minutes later, he said, "Sweetheart, these items aren't priced, but I really like them. How do you know the price?"

"You just ask the question outloud, Papa," I responded.

"What do you mean, 'outloud'?"

"Ask the question loud enough that the people around you can hear."

He looked at me with a raised eyebrow, but decided to try it. In a much louder voice, he said, "I wonder how much these are."

The woman kneeling next to him going through a basket of ornaments popped her head up and said, "Oh, those. I asked about them a few minutes ago and the Sales Clerk said they were $2.50 each."

Another woman on the other side of the tree commented, "Really? I asked and they told me $2.75. I guess that was before the discount."

Daddy looked at me and, once again, smiled. "It worked," he commented happily as he loaded the ornaments into his basket.

Two hours into our shopping, we were tired and had all the ornaments we needed, so we headed out for a cup of coffee and some breakfast.

"I'm amazed at all the tricks I learned," Papa said. "I never knew I could have so much fun shopping."

It was fun. And it was especially fun doing it with Daddy. That's the only time my father's hit the after-Christmas sales with me, but it was a memory I'll always have.

Two years ago, we were re-doing our house and living in a small cottage. We moved back into our much larger, restored home on October 25. I had not yet purchased a single Christmas present, unlike my usual routine, and we were in dire straits. I spent the first month unpacking and then we left to spend Thanksgiving with Don's parents in West Virginia.

When we arrived, my mother-in-law and I were discussing the situation with my shopping. She said, "Well, we'll just have to do something about that. It sounds to me like first thing on our Agenda is Christmas shopping."

We had rented a U-Haul truck for our return trip because we were bringing a piano home with us. Since we had all the extra space, we decided we could do all the shopping we needed. My mother-in-law started perusing the sales ads and we shopped, shopped, and shopped. For the first time ever, I hit the after-Thanksgiving sales and was amazed at the deals I found. I got a leather recliner for Don, a lovely glider with footrest for my mother, several leather jackets for my godson and nephews, etc. It opened up a whole new world of opportunity for me.

Last year, we were at the Doughty's again and hit the sales again, but not quite as hard as the previous year when we had a U-Haul to transport our finds home. Today was the first time I've shopped at home the day after Thanksgiving. And it wasn't too bad. I found Tommy Hillfiger long-sleeved dress shirts for $6.83 each at Macy's. I also found several other great buys and had fun with my mother, sister, niece, and daughter. The only disadvantage was having to rise at 4:30 to be at Goody's at 5:00 when it opened.

But having the bulk of my Christmas shopping out of the way is a tremendous relief. Now, for the wrapping!!