I was reading Peg-o-Leg’s Ramblings blog post, a humorous entry about last-minute gift ideas for the Ebenezer’s amongst us. She provided some hilarious suggestions, such as a library book accompanied by a lecture on the benefits of recycling; or a simple key, preferrable an old one, and definitely not a car key, to that special person – indicating that some nooky is coming their way. But I’m an Ebenezer of frill, and I actually like my family, so therein lies the rub – I want to buy them cool stuff, but bah humbug to the usually inflated mark-ups.
Nevertheless, I think I have found a solution, and I’d like to share it with my fellow “frill” seekers. The other day I was in a department store with wife, looking at a beautiful crystal tumbler and dec set for my brother, who I want to buy something that will last a while. The price however, almost sent me into a temporary, hypochondria-like mental condition. I asked the venerable shop assist if there was any way she could do me a better deal (like by about 2/3′s I was thinking). To my horror, she informed me that the price was already reduced, and I felt the onset of a migraine. What she said next, however, made the invisible light-bulb above my head flick on vigorously.
T&D set in question
She gave me a tip that will potentially save me hundreds of dollars. Her advice was to come to the store on Christmas Eve. The Boxing day sales start first thing on Boxing day morning, and so prices would have to be marked down on the evening of the 24th, before closing time - and she gave me another tip, that crystal tumbler and decanter set I wanted would be reduced from the already discounted price of $599 to $199!! The Scrooge inside me was doing the happy-dance.
So my advice to you all would be to head down to your local department store this Christmas Eve, maybe about an hour or so before closing, and see if you can get yourself a boxing day bargain, and embrace your Ebenezer inside of you while satisfying the need to give something lovely to someone special.
Footnote: Elsa and I went to the department store at six pm, after being told it would remain open a little later on Xmas eve. This was not the case, and it shut at 6pm on the dot. And while they may have done this to re-price everything, one can only speculate, and I still believe had we gotten their a little earlier, it could have been ours. As it was, we went away on holiday so we missed the boxing day sales, and all had been sold when we went back there on the weekend. Such is life.
OMG LOL!!!
Arh, The Jackal, and I note the cia.com…. this could only be my retarded brother.
All joking aside, this is so true. AND, most stores are open on Christmas Day. If you put off your gift swapping until later in the day, you can hurry to the store and get your gift for even less lol
Liking where this is going Val. And if I miss half the family gathering… I guess I’m still winning
wish i’d read this a month ago. love it. but what is boxing day?
Arh, Boxing day, it’s the public holiday the day after Xmas. To be honest, however, I’ve never really had much of an idea where it derives. According to Mr. Wiki, “Boxing Day is traditionally a day following Christmas when wealthy people in the United Kingdom would give a box containing a gift to their servants.” I always suspected it had something to do with boxing as in the fighting sport, which in my dysfunctional family, made a whole lot of sense the day after Xmas.