chilimak

I agree, it all depends on the store. I know my local wal mart usually has stuff that was doorbusters still at the sale price later in the day, or even days later if they still have it. Usually its toys mostly.

What I usually do is find the dvd's I want that are on sale at various stores on BF, and then go to wal mart and get them there and have them price match. My local wal mart is in my small town, where as all the other stores are in a bigger nearby city. Its easier to get what I need at the smaller town wal mart than to fight the crowds in the city. It works for me.

We have a calendar in the break room where we all write down our names on whatever days we need off and 99% of the time we get it off. I always ask off for BF. I work at Hallmark, in a strip mall in a small town, and we don't have any specials for BF. Its never a problem for me to be off that day, thank goodness. The days I can't ask off are Christmas eve, day after Christmas, and the weekend before Christmas. I don't even mind working Christmas eve because we are only open 8 hrs, so we have 2 4 hr. shifts going and I usually get the early shift, so I'm done by 1:00 pm anyway.

LOL, too cute.

We also do new pjs and an ornament for each kid on Christmas eve. Its a tradition they look forward to.

We have music channels on our digital cable. One is holiday music and was playing Halloween sort of music. I'm hoping now that Halloween weekend is over they will start playing Christmas music since there is no Thanksgiving music. I will check Monday and see what I get.

I do the exact same thing, lol. It works out great, doesn't it? After decorating, we put the empty totes back in the basement on the bottom shelf and when they aren't home, I start hiding gifts in the totes. They never think to look there either. We also hide some gifts in dh's closet.

I could see putting up outside decorations now, just not turn the lights on yet. It is probably easier to put decorations up now in the milder weather than it would be in a few weeks when it is colder and possibly snowing. I agree with the others and see no problem decorating your house for the holidays for your brother's visit. Have fun.

I agree with Mrs. Winter, I love my kodak digital. I am on my second one. My first kodak digital still works great and I handed it down to my 10 yr. old dd. I just wanted a slimmer one with better zoom and larger screen than my first one had. Hope this helps. Good luck in your search.

Well Hansie, I guess I am one of the people you love on BF. I always wear a Christmas sweatshirt to go BF shopping. Its tradition, lol. I agree, it sets the mood and gets things off to a festive start. Heck, I even wear a Christmas tee shirt on Thanksgiving while I am cooking. Its too hot in the kitchen for long sleeves and I have a cute Snoopy tee shirt with Snoopy carrying a plate of cookies. Its perfect to wear while cooking Thanksgiving dinner. Elena

Wow, thats annoying that they had the product, but were only going to sell a certain amount at the sale price then keep the rest for full price. I would have been upset too. Good for the lady for helping her fellow shoppers. My dh usually ends up being helpful to other shoppers in some way. One year, there were 2 ladies at wal mart trying to get the trampolines on sale. My dh is big and strong, so he picked one up for each of them and put them in their carts for them. We weren't even buying a trampoline, but happened to be right next to where they were at the time. The ladies were so grateful to dh for his help. I think he did the same thing for another shopper another year with dvd players for $20. or something. He is tall, so he just sort of reached over the crowd and grabbed a couple dvd players, one for us and another for a lady who was having trouble getting to them. He's such a nice guy.

We also have 3 December birthdays in our family, so its crazy at our house too. 2 of my kids are a few days before and after Christmas. I usually wait till early December to wrap. I have to sort out birthday and Christmas gifts and wrap accordingly. I also like to wrap my kids same but different gifts in the same paper. Like, their new pajamas, their annual ornament, their gift from grandma in another state. I love wrapping though and usually do it when the kids are at school on one of my days off. I turn the lights on, put on Christmas music, and have a blast. Oh, and those of you looking for wrapping paper, Hallmark has it out now. I work at Hallmark and we put our wrapping display up last week. Elena

So far, I can't think of any new no no's, but here are some of our no no's from previous years: Polly pocket sets, hot wheels sets, bendaroos, floam, moon sand, etc. (all those weird cheap but overpriced things). I don't have a problem with Pixos though. Keeps my 10 yr. old dd occupied quite a while. We even bought a second set at a garage sale this summer.

Ditto on the TRU big toy book. My kids and I LOVE that thing!!!!! I plan most of my shopping from that book. For BF its TRU, Target, and Wal Mart. I usually go through all the BF ads and try to get as much as I can from wal mart and get it price matched. Saves time and travel.

About 4 or 5 yrs. ago we bought the Kodak digital camera w/docking station for $200. at wal mart. Its a great little camera and has served me well all these years. I got a new, smaller kodak for Mother's Day, but the other camera is still great and I gave it to my 10 yr. old dd. 2 yrs. ago we got portable dvd player at wal mart for $50. or so and that is still used and loved for long trips. Also got youngest ds the vtech Nitro Notebook for about $30. at wal mart and he still plays with it all the time.

I have been price matching at wal mart on BF for years and I LOVE IT!!!!!! Did it again today too. Saved me a trip to kmart and target. I did notice that some items other stores had cheap were not on the shelves at all, so I am guessing they took them off so they wouldn't have to price match some items. I have noticed that they do this a lot. I did manage to get quite a few things I wanted price matched, so I was happy.

I started today. We are getting about 6" of snow today, and I have the holday bug bad. So, after cleaning the house, I hauled out our box of holiday cd's and dvds and put them on the shelves, ready to use. I then put a holiday cd on and worked on my Christmas card list. Tomorrow I plan on wrapping gifts and working on my cards. I say anytime in November is good. Have fun.

The kids look forward to it and its a tradition now. Last year, dd asked what's for breakfast, and I replied, "Christmas cookies of course. Its Christmas morning". She didn't argue.

I work a part time job and I only work 2-3 days a week. We have a calendar in the break room where we write our names on days we need/want off. Luckily, we have enough employees that we usually get our requested days off. I put my name on black Friday a couple months ago, and I got it off. I am really happy because my boss also gave me the day before Thanksgiving off too. I was surprised. I thought for sure I would get scheduled for Wednesday since I wanted Friday off. The only days I work that week are Monday and Tuesday, which is perfect because my 3 school age kids will be in school those days anyway. So, I have off almost everyday they will be off for school that week and weekend. I am very happy.

We are a strange family. We have Christmas cookies for breakfast on Christmas morning. It just sort of started a few years ago when the kids were really little. After opening all the gifts, the kids are usually anxious to get them out of the box and play with them. Dh and I get so busy doing all that, we just grab something quick and easy and that is usually cookies. Over the years it has just gotten to be a tradition. In my opinion, cookies aren't much different than donuts, so why not. Besides, its only once a year. We have a big meal later, so its no biggie.

I love doing my cards on a snowy, Christmasy kind of day. If I didn't have to work today, I would have loved to sit down and start signing/addressing my Christmas cards. We got about 4 inches of snow today, it was great. I want to get a head start on my cards this year because last year I started working part-time at Hallmark in early Nov. and I never got around to doing my cards. I still work there and love it, but hopefully I won't be as overwhelmed with work and the holidays as I was last year. I shouldn't be because I am now used to working 3 days a week and juggling everything else as well. I do want to keep up more with cards and wrapping though. I may start wrapping stuff soon after I buy it so nosy kids won't come across it, and if they do, the gifts will already be wrapped.

Our wal mart is open on Thanksgiving. The only day our wal mart closes is Christmas. I love it because we don't have to wait outside in the cold on BF morning. We just walk right into the store, walk around and get a "lay of the land" so to speak, then plant ourselves near what we want the most and when they cut the tape, go for it, lol. Plus, our wal mart is in a rather small town, so it isn't overly crowded or crazy. Its a lot of fun.

Well, dh and I have always gone out shopping on BF ever since we were married, so about 16 yrs. But, we went out later in the day. The first time we got up early and did doorbusters was about 8 yrs ago when we were visiting friends in a Chicago suburb. We had a lot of fun and have been getting up early ever since.

Wal Mart in Edinboro, PA. After that, possibly TRU in Erie

A few years ago at our second BF shopping excursion we bought a dvd player from wal mart for only $40. or so. It lasted 8 months, then died. That was a waste of money. I sure hope the portable dvd player we got there yesterday holds up better. I have to say, one of our best BF purchases was the Kodak digital camera w/docking station for $200. a few years ago. It works great and it still going strong, even the rechargable battery it came with is still working great. One of the best purchases we made over the years. I would like a new one someday, but for now it does the job just fine. Elena