BellaOnline Forums Home and Garden Organization XMas Shopping - Best Places

Where do you guys find your best holiday gifts and deals?? I'm going to hit up a lot of stores this weekend and could use many suggestions.

I heard some interesting news about one store that I mentioned in another board earlier...Sears. Apparently they had a contest and the winners are going to spend Thursday night shopping in the Chicago Sears store!! I was in Chi-town this weekend and heard about it. They're calling it the Sears Extreme Sleepover. The benefit is that the store is closed to anyone other than the contest winners!! So you get to shop without the hassle of going through the mobs...for anyone who's shopped in Chicago or any other big city, you know how rare that is <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Anyway, thought that was interesting...anyone know of other specials like this?? I wish I had known about the contest before!!

Do you like to shop online? You can always check through catalogs for those special gifts and if you don't wish to purchase online a visit to one of the department stores for something comparable is helpful.

Some places I like to shop and get ideas for gifts:

Dailycandy.com (ideas, although expensive)
redenvelope.com (will ship at a later date for you)
Flylady.net (great gift ideas)
Oldnavy.com (great deals in clearance)

I like to go to some of the outlet malls too. They are not cheaper but sometimes they offer a variety of gifts not seen in the local department stores.

Great ideas! Thanks!

Did you do any shopping on Friday after Thanksgiving? Some of our stores opened at 5:30 a.m. Someone told me they had gone to Kohls and the line to check out was wrapped around the store. That's not for me.

I do virtually all of my online shopping at amazon.com. Most of my gift list is books, videos, cds, etc., and most everything is priced lower than retail on amazon. Household items are available, too... I bought a breadmaker there at the lowest price I found *anywhere* ($49, free s/h), and this year I'm buying one of those robotic vacuums (Roomba) (also free s/h). Amazon offers free shipping on almost everything (as long as your total is over about $50), and you can have things wrapped as well (for a small fee). I've never had a complaint with their service or products. They also have an invaluable "wish list" feature, where I save things throughout the year... makes it very easy to shop once gift giving time rolls around, and you can keep things in your shopping cart indefinitely, or move them back and forth to and from your wish list. You can also make your wish list available to your loved ones who might be wondering what you *really* want. <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> I highly recommend it!

� hadn't ever thought about doing so much shopping through Amazon.com. I'll check it out. I tend to do a lot of online catalog shopping but it is based on the hard copies that I receive at home. I must have received 30 in the past few days.

nobody has mentioned ebay. Its got all of the online convenience of amazon.com, but with the chance of finding something for a really low price. The only problem is you have to read the descriptions really carefully.

froogle.google.com organizes the whole internet like google, but aimed at items you can buy.

The problem with shopping online is you have to do your shopping early.

I like the discount stores such as Marshalls, T. J. Maxx and Ross. They have a nice variety of products at good prices. Also if you can catch one of the 15-30% off sales at Kohl's (online too), they have a great selection.