Another BF topic.... Your BF Traditions

[SuperMommy]

My black friday tradition so far has been to not go to sleep the night before, drive to Best Buy about 4:00 a.m., decide the line is too long, go home and go back to sleep.

 

I usually don't sleep either. I try but I'm always too excited to sleep. We always have to drive to the next town to go to Target b/c there isn't one in our town. The first year I was so tired that I fell asleep on my cousins shoulder on the way there. Needless to say there is a picture of it in my aunt's house.

[elena_398]

I never sleep. God knows I try but I keep thinking about the lines (will I be first etc), think about quantities the stores may or may not have. etc. My brain is usually too busy to go to sleep. Wake up, leave the house and be in line by 2am. My stores open at 5am mostly (KB Toys and Toys R Us does)

[bayhaysay]

Late Thanksgiving when we can't possibly eat another bite, we all pour over the ads. My sister and I are usually the only ones insane enough to go out on BF so everone else sends their order & $ and we pick it all up.

[raspberry_tart]

Black Friday is one of my favorite days of the year! After Thanksgiving dinner, my mother takes the kids back to her house with her. That is usually the only day of the year my mother has the kids sleep over, and they love it because my mom sets up her Christmas tree and the kids decorate it with her. DH and I stay up late and usually the online Black Friday deals start in the wee hours, so we keep an eye out for them.

DH and I have our list of stores we want to go to, and we figure out which is the most "important" store to hit. We get there super early, and usually get there before anyone else. We sit in the van, so we stay warm, and we don't get out until we see the first person get in line at the store. So we are always second in line.

We have separate lists of what we want to get in that store. DH is a much faster runner than I am, so the best things go on his list. I love watching him run past the crowd to get to whatever widjit the kids want most each year!

After the first store, we take a more relaxed pace and hit the other stores on our list.

After we have visited every store we planned to, we go home and unload all the goodies, and go through them and make a list of what we bought before hiding the stuff in the attic so the kids won't see it.

And then we rest for a bit, before going out for lunch on the way to pick up the children from my mother.

[sgtboots]

My mom and I plan our strategy after Thanksgiving dinner. She hits Wal Mart and Kmart, I hit the mall. We have each others list of what to get. That way, we both get the deals! My sister in law meets me here around 5am, we hop in my truck and head to the mall. Usually hit WalMart around 10, shop, each lunch, then KMart and the little stores. We actually do pretty good at the little stores-4 movies for $28 last year!

 

DH spends the day decorating for me-only the outside. He gets all my wreaths and spot lights up so I am ready to light up that evening.

 

We get home around 4, put everything in the garage, and hop back in the truck to go to my mom's for Light Up Night. Mom, her boyfriend, her friend and daughter, my aunt, uncle and their grandaughter, DH & me watch the fire truck parade, then head to the fire department so the kids can see Santa.

 

After a rest from the big shopping day, sister in law and I plan our wrapping day. She comes over, DH lights a fire in the woodburner of the garage and we have a wrapping party. All the gifts are stacked up on the garage shelves for Santa to come and pick them up Christmas Eve.

 

(Santa was here already-he dropped off a scooter for SIL kids. We are the holding place so Santa dosen't have to carry everything!)

 

It's our yearly tradition!

[caseyslilangel]

Aww my whole family gets together after thanksgiving dinner and compares ad's, decides whose gonna grab what for who. We do it every year while the men watch football and laugh at us.

 

Funny they aren't laughing at us when we come home and they see how much money we have saved.LOL

[littlezar]

Thanksgiving Day I go through all the ads while DH cooks! Then I'm up super early for the fun of BF shopping on my own. I bebop through the few stores I want to hit and am usually home no later than 9 or 10AM! Even if I don't see any "absolute must have" deals, I still go out because it's tradition!

[SuperMommy]

A friend and I meet at the Waffle House across from the Mall & Circuit City at 4am to eat breakfast and go over our notes as to what we are going to buy. Last year I cut the pictures out of ads of everything that I wanted to look for. I pasted them to paper and took them with me. It really helped when we got to Sears for a TV and DVD player that was on sale. While all of the other shoppers were frantically trying to find those 2 items I was able to go straight to the register and show her my copy of the ad. Both items had the sku listed so she was able to ring it up. I was the first one in line because I ran straight to the register.

 

I plan on doing that again this year.

 

Amie

 

Hey...U wouldn't happen to live in Rome, GA would you? There is a Waffle House right across from our mall and Circuit City. I live in Calhoun but do my BF shopping in Rome.

[peachysquirt21]

On Thanksgiving look thru the ads & plan. Usually we go to Shopko & KMart on Thanksgiving. We no longer have Kmart so go to Shopko & Walmart. Most of the time I can never get to sleep the night before BF. I dont get much sleep, get ready & leave between 4 & 5am. Get all the shopping done & come home to wrap presents & put up the X-Mas tree if it's not already up. LOL Put a X-Mas movie in the DVD player & enjoy rest of the relaxing eating leftovers. LOL

 

I forgot to add that last year there was not many BF ads in our paper either. I thought that was very strange. I bought 2 papers & they had very little in them. Hopefully this year it will be better.