If you're smart this year, you'll be out of your blocks on the ‘B' of ‘Bang' to get your Christmas shopping campaign under way. Keep your eyes peeled though and you might just catch sight of a jolly old guy in a red suit, who'll run you a good race for the early rich pickings.



This year though, if you and Santa are really smart, you won't be breaking sweat on the high street, where you'll both go head to head with frenzied Christmas shoppers, oh no, if you're really smart, you'll be browsing through Catalogues for ideas and you'll be ordering online from the comfort of your own armchair.

Shopping online is the absolute best way to keep both your dignity and your sanity, and it's by far the best way to keep your stress levels in check. For those of you who really must indulge in the Christmas rush first hand, you have the option to order or reserve from your favourite bricks and clicks retailer then collect it yourself.

For me, the split between online and high street shopping will be ninety/ten. I have no intention whatsoever of lugging any more Christmas presents around town, rather, I'll be ticking and clicking my way through my Christmas list online and only venturing into town for gift wrap and some casual browsing for stocking fillers, and of course, there'll probably be plenty of coffee and muffin breaks in there somewhere as well.

Has it always been this easy? Well no, it hasn't, and I'd have to say that my view of Christmas past has been a little jaded as a result. I'm sure there are shopaholics aplenty, it's just that I'm not one of them. The advent of the Internet has made shopping and Christmas shopping in particular a darn sight easier as far as I'm concerned and it's done something I never thought it would, and that is to remove the only dark cloud on the run up to Christmas, allowing me to enjoy the whole festive period from start to finish.

To just quickly remind you of how easy online shopping can be, let me just recap some of the benefits as I see them: You can browse a printed catalogue for ideas (requested online of course), You can browse online where retailers have even greater ranges than catalogue only or bricks and mortar only retailers can display. You can take advantage of web only exclusives. You can pay cash or take advantage of any number of pay now or next year options. You can sort and view the best bargains, by price, by brand, by model etc. You can hunt down those popular, but scarce hot sellers and know for sure that you're one of the lucky few, once your order is confirmed. You can choose a delivery time or day. Are you tempted yet?

One final point: At least one (major) online catalogue retailer offers the following: Order by 3.pm on the 22nd of December and still have your things delivered for Christmas. So if you really want a stress free shopping experience right up to the last minute, Catalogue, Home Shopping & the Internet really are your best option. Even Santa's gotta be tempted by that!

As always, Happy Shopping.

Copyright (c) 2007 Sam Benton