The shopping procrastinator

There are 17 days left until Christmas. I am not much of a shopper, aside from Christmas shopping, which I love. However, up until last night, I had not even begun my Christmas shopping. Am I in trouble?

I am normally very organized at Christmas, with wish lists, to-do lists, Christmas card lists and “done” lists. There are many lists. This year: no lists. I must get my act together.

Eleanor is 15 months old today. How many gifts does she really need? It isn’t like she’ll be running down the stairs on Christmas morning, her eyes full of excitement. More likely, I will have to wake her up and she will be more interested in wrapping paper and bows than what is actually under it all.

But still, gifts have to be under the tree.

Luckily, Walmart Canada sent me an invitation the other day, which finally kicked me into gear. Last night they hosted a special event at their Etobicoke store that helped to address shopping challenges of the average consumer. My challenge: what and how much do you buy a 15-month-old girl? Do I go with the necessities or the fun route? I decided to do a little bit of both.

My first stop was the toy aisle. Walmart currently has their toy aisles colour coded: blue for ‘boy’ toys, pink for ‘girl’ toys and orange for neutral. As the mom of an sweet, adorable baby girl, I immediately headed to the blue section in search of cars and trucks. This kid loves things on wheels. And just because I have a ‘pink’ kid doesn’t mean I am forbidden to enter the blue zone.

After I collected several Chuck trucks, I ventured into baby apparel, where I added several shirts, a couple pairs of leggings, and a skirt with tights attached to it. And of course, to avoid being too ‘pink’, a few items were purchased from the boy section. I topped off my shopping trip with an “E” Christmas ornament and hit the checkout.

I know this was only the first of many holiday shopping trips, but I feel that things will snowball now. My plan is to add just a few more toys and call it a day. I’m not sure I will get her one “big” gift like many parents do. I’m hoping that doesn’t make me a terrible parent. In my opinion, she is still young and doesn’t require a mountain of toys. However, with her being the only baby in my family, I know she will be spoiled rotten by grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and friends. That works for me!

Photo by Scarlet Lens Photography