It might be my lack of maturity, but I still feel like a little kid when the holidays are approaching. I still get butterflies when I think about the twinkling lights, the holiday concerts, The Nutcracker Ballet, holiday parties - the whole shebang. Interestingly enough, gifts are always the last thing I think about.
Maybe that's because when I was growing up, extravagant gifts were less of a thing - there were no car commercials suggesting you need to give your partner a car, oh, and while you're at it just grab one for yourself too. No commercials telling you that you need to spend $1,000 on a new phone for your kids.
As a result, I think we shopped differently. With a few exceptions, we didn't decide what to get ahead of time, then travel to 14 different stores getting angrier and angrier because everyone is out of stock. (Story alert - ask me about the knock-down-drag-out over the white Power Ranger sometime.)
We went to a store, looked around and saw things that made us think of our loved ones, and if they were within our budget, we took them home. Some people I know took that method to the extreme - and that brings me to another story alert - ask me someday about the "I cry for you" gift.
At any rate, I'm obviously old enough that Black Friday wasn't a thing back when. In fact, lots of stores weren't even open the day after Thanksgiving, and if they were, they were still recovering from the turkey coma and weren't about to open early for you. So I have always thought the Black Friday thing was weird. But when we started seeing stampedes on the news and stories of people trampled underfoot trying to be first in the door at WallyWorld - we'll, I just can't even. I have actually never set foot in a retail store on the day after Thanksgiving - this year will be my first.
So that puts me in a really awkward position as a new retail shop owner!
I'm happy to have a sale and help you with your holiday shopping. And I'm happy to be here during regular hours. I won't even be recovering from a turkey coma, because we had an early Thanksgiving dinner in October when we had our whole family together. So we will do Black Friday (and Saturday, actually), but it's going to be a relaxed affair. No whipping you into a frenzy trying to make you buy something you don't want/need, no pushing the most expensive products on you - in general, no Grinchiness.
We will have pretty lights, Christmas music, lots of conversation and laughter, help with shopping and special deals. Check out our current newsletter to see what we have planned: November 17 Newsletter.
Also, this newsletter has info about holiday closures and new hours for 2022 - go check it out and sign up for it if you don't already get it!