Christmas shopping

I know.  It seems waaaay too early to start your Christmas shopping already.  Or is it?  I have a fairly substantial list of Christmas gifts that I want to buy for people this year, and have decided that the gifts will be small and meaningful.  I am also travelling overseas for almost a month before Christmas, so I need to use my time well.

So I was thinking...if I divide my shopping list into 4 and buy 25% of the gifts this month, and 25% of the gifts next month, and so on, I will be done with my Christmas shopping by end November.  Isn't that so cool??  It means that I won't be trawling the malls in late November or December with all the frazzled, desperate gift shoppers.  It means that I will have time to think about the person that I am buying a gift for, and make sure that the gift will be meaningful, or at least useful - I like useful gifts, I don't like rubbish that stands on the mantelpiece and gathers dust (called kaggelkak in South Africa).

Here's a little sneak peek at a gift that I have already bought - a gorgeous lunch tote.  I bought a couple of them as Christmas gifts and will fill them with yummy treats such as seed and nut bars, or chocolates and hand cream before wrapping them.  That's a really neat (and useful!) gift.

So that's my Christmas shopping strategy for 2011.  What's yours?