Opinion: Christmas preparations underway

Spotlight Tauranga worker Robyn Anstis with some of the early Christmas stock. Photo/Samantha Motion

It's only September and already Christmas decorations have hit some store shelves around the Bay of Plenty.

Spotlight Tauranga has baubles, decorations and fabrics available now - with some festive season-themed products having been around since July, and even more to become available.

If you're one of the well-organised people, the thought of getting ready for Christmas four months in advance won't necessarily be too much of a shock. For others like myself, who is not necessarily well organised even though Christmas is one of my favourite times of the year, preparing for Christmas now is a little alarming.

The fact Halloween hasn't even arrived yet scares me just a tad. Surely I'm not the only unorganised lass, right?

I know plenty of people who stock up on Christmas gifts throughout the year. They wait for the end of financial year sales and jump at the chance of grabbing a bargain and tucking it away until they can palm it off as a Christmas gift.

I know others who do the bulk of their Christmas shopping on Christmas Eve.

I myself sit in between these two extremes. Knowing that stores are getting ready for Christmas however, and that we'll no doubt see even more Christmas everything on display in coming weeks, is hopefully my wake-up call to at least start thinking about it.

It certainly makes sense to get ready for Christmas now.

Not only will you be able to avoid Christmas traffic jams and get stuck behind queues of people in stores, buying bits and pieces now will avoid spending up large all at once.

If you're well organised, you've probably budgeted for the Christmas season well in advance. If that is you, I take my hat off to you and hope to be just as well prepared next year!