I have recently posted many of my best Black Friday shopping tips. The crazy thing: the reason I have this blog is because I have spent the last 11 months NOT buying clothes, shoes and accessories. I have to ask myself:
Should I be participating in Black Friday?
According to my own specific rules, I am well within my legal limits buying electronics, toys and housewares. But this year of not buying has changed my view on everything I buy. Of course I still have gifts to buy. But this year, I will be buying FAR fewer. I consider myself a reasonably intelligent person and yet, in the midst of a shopping frenzy, I am as dumb as a rock. I have bought so many useless and unwanted items for my kids, it ridiculous. My parents made sure to provide many, many gifts under our Christmas tree and it was magical. I tried to recreate that with my own children. It just seemed like each year, the bounty grew. Looking back, it was kind of obscene. But done with a full heart. I am sure that my kids would have been just as happy with a fraction of the loot.
This challenge is providing me an opportunity to change certain "traditions." For example, I followed my family's tradition of supplying each member of my family a new pair of pajamas on Christmas eve so we could awaken fresh and coordinating. Last year it included my 21 year old daughter, 18 year old son, my grandson and his dad. I didn't know how to stop gracefully. But now I can! It would be illegal for me to buy any pajamas at all. Now, if my daughter chooses to do so, she will continue this tradition for her family.
Black Friday has come to mean the beginning of the holiday season to me so I may still go out and breathe in the crowds and the crazy. Or I may just stay in bed. I probably won't decide until Thursday.
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