chilimak

No game plan here. Not getting up early either. Daughter and I plan on just getting up and heading to the mall and a few other stores. Daughter has a plan for certain stores, but I’m just winging it. I just like going shopping on Black Friday. It’s a tradition.

I have 3 teenagers plus my son's girlfriend to do stockings for. The boys usually get little items of their favorite sports teams. Stuff like toothbrushes, pens, key chains, etc. The girls always get Christmas socks and nail polish. I also always tuck in a variety of candy and a chap stick. This year I will probably give each of them a charging cord, because as a previous poster stated, those are always needed.

For the house, anything cinnamony or vanilla like sugar cookie. For me, my all time favorite is anything Winter Candy Apple scent from Bath and Body Works.

Our holiday extras include: My husband's work Christmas party Middle school holiday chorus concert Middle school holiday band concert Lots of cookie baking Sending Christmas cards Driving around looking at Christmas lights, usually 2 or 3 different times and areas. We have at least one or two Christmas Saturdays where the kids and I do Christmas stuff all day. We bake cookies, play Christmas monopoly, and watch Christmas movies. Various Christmas related activities at our church: decorating our church, assembling food baskets for needy families, Children's holiday program. I don't really consider all these things extras though. I have been doing them so long that they are all just part of our Christmas traditions. We also have 3 birthdays in December. Me and 2 of my kids, so that keeps us busy too.

1. Christmas Vacation 2. The Homecoming (it was the pilot to the Walton's tv show. I found the dvd in the $5. bin at Wal Mart a few years ago. Now I watch it a few times during the holiday season) 3. Prancer 4. A Christmas Story 5. Miracle on 34th Street (all versions) I love all Holiday movies and specials and love all the movies on Hallmark channel and ABC Family. These 5 are my absolute favorites though. Thanks for starting this post. It's giving me ideas of more movies to add to my collection.

We got a great looking tree on Black Friday 3 years ago at Home Depot for a great price. I think we paid $50. for it. I can't remember what it was originally, but I know it was a great deal.

Thrift stores and garage sales would be a great place to look for ugly sweaters at cheap prices. I will have to remember to be on the lookout for them next summer.

Just making sure it worked.

My daughter is 14 and last year it was easy to shop for her. Especially stocking stuffers. She got a kindle fire HD, as well as fun socks, earrings, nail polish, gift cards to fun stores in the mall, iTunes gift card, books, posters, fun slippers, clothes. This is a fun age to shop for girls. I always see tons of things I know my daughter would like. I have a harder time shopping for my boys, ages 16 and 11.

Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer Shrek the Halls Ruldoph and Frosty's Christmas in July Winnie The Poo and Christmas Too Frosty the Snowman How The Grinch Stole Christmas Charlie Brown Christmas Jack Frost

Here's Round One!! 1- Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer 2-Ruldoph Shiny New Year 3- Ruldoph and Frosty's Christmas in July 29- The Tangerine Bear 5-Frosty the Snowman 6- Twas The Night Before Christmas 7- Santa Claus is Coming to Town 25-Nestor- The Long Eared Christmas Donkey 9-Meiser Bros. Christmas 10-A Charlie Brown Christmas 11- How the Grinch Stole Christmas 21- Year Without a Santa Claus 20-Whinnie the Pooh and Christmas Too 14-Prep and Landing- 2010- Secret Santa 18- Shrek The Halls 17-John Denver and The Muppets

Had a good Black Friday and Gray Thursday, as my husband now calls it, lol. We headed to Wal Mart around 7:00 so dh could get a ticket for the $179. laptop. Luckily, he was one of the last 5 to get a ticket. My main goal was the Wii U Draw set for only $10., so I went in search of that. I had to ask 3 associates before someone knew where they were. Once I found them, I waited for 8:00 to get 2 of them. I wanted to try to get some DVDs and video games, but figured I would see what was left after I got the U Draw. Had a good time chatting w/ some ladies also waiting, then around 7:50 people started grabbing for things, so I grabbed my 2 before they were gone. After that, I was sort of trapped by sporting goods and couldn't get out, so I snuck under the yellow tape at the end of the aisle just to get out. Then I made my way over to the dvd/video game chaos. By the time I got there the initial rush had passed, so I just sorted through them and to my surprise found all but 1 thing I had wanted, yea!!! After that, I went over to where my dh was waiting for the laptop, then we decided to try to get the dual dvd player for $49., so I went over there to wait for that for 40 minutes. It wasn't bad there, but they didn't have very many of them for the amount of people hovering. Around 9:50, when the associates started to tear the packaging, people just started grabbing them and the associate was yelling to people to put them back, but of course no one was listening. I figured I might as well grab one too or I wouldn't get one, so I grabbed one. Here is what I got this weekend: Wal Mart Compaq laptop ($179) Dual DVD player ($49) Garmin GPS ($69) Wii U Draw ($10.) Wii Play Motion game ($15) Would You Rather game ($5) Scrabble Flash game($5) DVDs We bought a Zoo, Contagion, Dispicable Me ($5. each) 2 Recipe tins w/recipes ($3. each) Cars 2 dvd price matched ($10.) Sears Headphones ($10) Headphones ($5) 3 of them JC Penney Pink Skinny jeans for dd ($14) Sweater ($14) This was the first Black Friday since I have had kids that I didn't go to Toys R Us.

I have been here for years. Of course I pledge to stay aaround all year!! Love this site!!

My favorite thing about Black Friday is the energy and excitement of the day.

Our different tradition is having Christmas cookies for breakfast on Christmas morning. It started a few years ago when the kids were still little and all 4 were wanting us to help get their new toys assembled and working and we needed a quick breakfast. Cookies were easy to just grab and continue with what we were doing, so we did. Hey, people eat donuts and pop tarts for breakfast, so there isn't much difference, lol. Now the kids are teens and tweens and the tradition has just stuck. Another different tradition also involves food on Christmas eve. We are usually busy finishing up shopping and/or wrapping last minute gifts on Christmas eve then going to Christmas eve church service, so we have a quick dinner before church. A few years ago I started serving a cheese and lunch meat tray and have fancier buns/rolls for it along with a veggie tray and chips. I don't want to cook a big meal since we will have a big meal on Christmas. The kids love it. My 13 yr. old dd calls them "fancy sandwiches" and looks forward to them every year. It just started as a quick and simple meal on a busy day 5 yrs. ago, and it just stuck.

I like the idea of keeping the pjs under the tree from BF on, fun!!!! I should try this with my kids. Only problem at our house is our pets. Our cat loves to sleep under the tree and the dog tries to chase the cat. They might be better this year though since they are a little older and our dog is more settled now. My kids have been getting new pjs on Christmas eve since they were babies, and my 13 yr. old dd and 10 yr. old ds still look forward to it. My 15 yr old ds could care less, but he still gets new pj pants anyway.

What a wonderful idea!!!!! I LOVE this!!! I wish my kids were still little so we could do this, but at ages 15, 13, and 10 they are too old for it. I might be able to pull it off with my 10 yr. old though. Hmmmm, I might have to consider this idea.

Does your son like any particular sports team? My 2 oldest boys are Steelers fans, so we always get them some sort of Steelers clothes and stuff for Christmas and birthdays. My 15 yr. old also decided this year that Addidas is his favorite brand, why I have no idea, but it makes it easy to buy stuff for him knowing he likes this brand. I too don't buy much clothes for my kids aside from their new Christmas eve pjs, but I do get the boys clothes with their favorite team on it and they always like that. Good luck. This is a difficult age to buy for. I have 3 boys ages 23, 15, and 10 and a 13 yr. old girl. My girl is so much easier to shop for. I have tons of ideas for gifts and stocking stuffers for her, but have to rack my brain to come up with things for the boys, especially my 15 yr. old.

Just today my 13 yr. old dd was playing Mariah Carey's "All I want for Christmas is You" on her ipod and saying how she is really in a Christmas mood. I said I was too and we both agreed it was probably due to the weather. Its been cold this week, and today I bought a couple gifts online. We might watch a Christmas movie this weekend.

The Little Drummer Boy, The Tangerine Bear.

I know what you mean. It was sad to shop BF at wal mart last year and just walk past all the toy deals. I do still get each of the kids a cheap game every year, but that is about it. My kids are 10, 13, and 15. My sons want video games of course, and my 13 yr. old dd wants jewelry and gc mostly. My 10 yr. old hasn't been into toys much for years. He is a sports fanatic, so he has always wanted sports equipment and jerseys of his favorite players over toys.

1. Move these tvs out of the the way, I want my frozen dinner!! 2. Ack, I've been goosed!!!! 3. Nappy time.

2 yrs. ago my oldests son who was 13 at the time wanted an Xbox 360 on BF. He was buying it w/his own money. So, we took my then 11 yr. old daughter and 8 yr. old son with us to wal mart. He got his ticket and waited in line w/ my husband and his siblings while I shopped. That was the year wal mart did electronics at 5 am and the other smaller stuff at midnight, so while they waited in line, I shopped. When I was done, my husband took me and the youngest home then he went back to wait with the other 2. They all had a blast waiting, got the xbox and came home and slept some then we all went out shopping later that morning. We took all 3 kids to wal mart again last year because my husband wanted a laptop and my daughter wanted to buy a blue Wii with her own money. Again, it went smoothly. Also, I have been taking my kids out BF shopping after 9 am to the mall and toys r us for years without any problems. We live in a small town, so our wal mart isn't too bad.

Me too!!! Gotta love the Target Lady!!

I am Elena from Edinboro PA. I have 3 kids ages 15, 13, and 10. I have been bf shopping for about 12 yrs now and have been coming to this site for 7 yrs. I will be buying for my 3 kids and my husband.