Present prep: How to create your own buying guide

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With Christmas right around the corner now, many retailers have been creating their own gift buying guides to help shoppers navigate the chaos and confusion that's so characteristic of Christmas shopping.

These guides are generally filled with pages and pages of Christmas gift ideas, with some buying guides also being sectioned by other factors like your budget, the age range of your intended gift recipients, and the types of gifts that they may be after (i.e. technology, books, clothing, etc.).

However, more often than not, consulting gift buying guides made by retailers looking to move stock during the holiday season is generally nothing more than a good start on your own gift buying process.

A surefire way of getting ahead of your Christmas shopping this year is to make your own buying guide. With your own guide in place, you'll be able to ensure that your Christmas shopping is completed on time and within a well-defined budget.

Here's all that you'll need to create your own Christmas gift buying guide for this coming holiday season.

The most important thing to consider when creating your gift buying guide is what your intended budget will be, either for each recipient, for any Kris Kringle or other gift exchanges you may be participating in, or for each event (i.e. a work Christmas party versus your family Christmas dinner).

It's good to keep your gift exchange budgets separate from your more personal gift-giving plans, as KK or Secret Santa is generally established with a very clear cut budget that all participants must adhere to. This naturally makes your KK gifts a lot easier to finalise than gifts for all the other people in your life, so it's in your best interests to try and finish all your KK shopping well before December 1st if you can.

Once your KK shopping is out of the way, you can deduct these special spending limits from your overall Christmas season budget, ensuring that the rest of your Christmas gift buying process can continue on with minimal fiscal fuss.

Of course, there's always a lingering fear during our Christmas shopping process that we may end up forgetting about one or two loved ones! This is a seasonal anxiety that is likely to accompany the month of December regardless of how prepared you may be. It's perfectly natural to feel like things have slipped through the cracks when there's just so much that needs to be done. There are methods for combating this anxiety, however, the best of which involves utilising one of Santa's own weapons: a humble list of names.

After you've deducted your KK gift buying from your overall Christmas shopping, you should take some time to think about who exactly you will be spoiling with the remainder of your shopping budget, and put all those names down on a list. You can categorise this list based on how you know the recipient (i.e. from work, uni, family, high school, neighbours etc.) to make sure that you're not forgetting about anyone else who may belong within these specific categories.

There are other methods for creating and organising this list of Christmas gift recipients, so feel free to use your own organisational processes here. Just be sure to double check that list periodically so that nobody goes forgotten this holiday season!

With all of your intended recipients now identified and your budget perfectly outlined, all that's really left to do is figure out how to find everyone on your list their perfect Christmas gift. Yes, this is easier said than done, but it is not an impossible feat. With just a little forethought and planning, you'll be able to source thoughtful gifts for virtually all the names on your Christmas list this year. All you have to do is ask yourself what kind of person your recipient is, and what type or theme of gift they'd be likely to enjoy.

For instance, pragmatic gift recipients generally like functional presents, like magazine subscriptions, computer software, or even gift cards to their favourite retailers so that they can buy something that they'll be able to use themselves. On the complete opposite end of the spectrum, sentimental recipients are likely to enjoy the personal touch that you'll bring to their Christmas gifts, and will appreciate any present that reflects the care and attention you put into finding that particular holiday gift.

Of course, there's no denying that people do tend to change from Christmas to Christmas, making buying gifts for extended family members who you may not see very often a veritable minefield. If you feel as though you don't know some of the people on your list well enough to apply this thought process to their gift buying, then working within a theme of gifts that's based on that person's rough background can be rather helpful too.

It goes without saying that a growing majority of people do not find Christmas crowds very pleasant at all, especially those of us who have spent our fair share of Christmases working in retail or hospitality in our youth! With many retailers experiencing stock shortages however due to lingering impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, it's more important now than ever before for Christmas shoppers to be proactive about their gift buying.

Many Aussies are scrambling to get their online shopping done and dusted well before December to ensure that any delays with postage don't interfere with family Christmas plans. Simultaneously, a lot of families are hitting brick and mortar stores now too, with the intention of ensuring that all their Christmas shopping is completed in the first two weeks of December simply to minimise their risks of finding themselves in large crowds of other shoppers.

With your buying guide in place, you'll be able to keep track of the delivery statuses of your online orders, and tick all your gifts off as you've bought them. In essence, your buying guide will not only take a lot of strain off your Christmas shopping process, but also on your wider Christmas preparations.

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As this Christmas season is sure to reunite many families who may have had to forego their celebrations in 2020, chances are that you'll have a lot to keep you occupied in the weeks leading up to and including December 25th. Creating your own Christmas buying guide will ensure that this highly-anticipated Christmas season will go off without a hitch, and with smiles abound.