January

Evolved over time, but now I shop earlier to allow online shopping for most of it. Yea, I already bought my first gifts and there would be more if I have ideas …. Although I’m sure I’ll still be scrambling at the last minute.

Anyway, I’m also offended that commercial Christmas starts earlier and earlier every year - why does my grocery have more Christmas cookies than Thanksgiving? So I’m not actively shopping until then. I usually don’t get caught up in Black Friday, but that’s a good date to keep Christmas shopping from taking over

I ordered my wife’s gift a few days ago and over the weekend we planned what we will gift to family members.

In years past I’ve gotten gifts as much as eight months early if I found the perfect gift.

Back in 2002 or so I got the perfect gift for my now ex-brother in law. He was a huge Hitchcock fan and a coworker who collected life masks ended up with an extra Hitchcock.

Now life masks were made for special effects in movies, and were essentially a cast of the head used to make models.

For most of a year I had a paper bag on my living room table, the top neatly folded over.

I got to experience the joy, over and over, of people asking what was in the bag, telling them it was “Alfred Hitchcock’s head,” and seeing the shocked reaction when Hitchcock stared back up at them.

And the jerk of my ex-brother in law loved it too.

Edit: I figured I’d put in an image of an identical life mask, what people would see when they peek into the bag:

I just started this past weekend, but if I see something perfect or amazing earlier I’ll snag it. I know I’m going to get an instant camera for my niece, I’m hoping there’s a good Black Friday sale on one next week.

When our kids became about 12, we started a new tradition because they usually wanted one expensive gift - phone, game system, etc. I buy smaller things and stocking suffers in early/mid-December. Then on Christmas Eve we go out to lunch and buy their big gift together.

Day before usually

“Get” as in buy/make them for others or “get” as in receive them?

US based, for context. I have a large family spread all over the place. We do a Secret Santa drawing, where each person gets another’s name and buys them their gift. So everyone gets one nicer gift instead of lots of little stuff.

We get our names and start buying around now so we can take advantage of Black Friday sales. People start receiving their gifts in the mail from early December through the holidays.

For non-family, non-Secret Santa, this is also the time I start buying gifts. I keep a note on my phone through the year for gift ideas, so it’s usually pretty easy come November to buy for people.

Bought most of mine a week ago. Most of my kinfolk get them early/midmonth December. I’ll prob wrap them closer in to the date, about when I buy remainders.