When it comes to Christmas shopping, some area residents like to finish it early, while others believe waiting until the last minute has its advantages.

Asked to respond to a Facebook inquiry concerning their shopping habits, the early birds and the procrastinators provided their reasons for choosing their shopping schedules.

Those residents took to Facebook to discuss their preferences

Julia M. “Betty” Gray posted this: “Not a procrastinator. Presents bought and wrapped.”

Linda C. Clark wrote: “Its because you are waiting for a ‘EUREKA’ moment…of inspiration to hit you with the perfect gift idea. You think about the people on your list over and over…because you love them…You do care! And you do want to not bomb on Christmas…Should I get creative? Or just play it safe and give money? I dither between these two poles for weeks…”

David Carraway had this observation: “To watch those who truly wait fight over the same one item left.”

“I work best under pressure,” posted either Jeremy or Brittany Davis, who, apparently, share a Facebook page.

Monica Sommers Ferrari shared this point of view: “Pressure brings innovative gift ideas for me. So I wait until a few days before Christmas Eve. However shopping ON Christmas Eve is taboo in my family…..time to be all together in front of the fire with some good wine.”

Ronald Lundy offered this take on Christmas gifts: “We usually get so busy with work that we can’t with all the long lines so, instead we do usually handmade gifts and letters to each other and for our son of course actual gifts but we typically do our Christmas at a later date when we can take a day off usually customary gift for Christmas in our home is a vacation and we do our gift exchange when we are away and the hustle and bustle is nonexistent and completely gone and that way it’s more personal and meaningful and it always helps us to appreciate the value of a more touching and meaningful gift from the heart than a material thing.”

Kit  Yarrow, a consumer psychologist, wrote this in Money magazine last December: “In my experience as a consumer psychologist, I’ve talked to countless holiday shopping procrastinators, and the truth is that procrastination does not stem from laziness or thoughtlessness. (Not always, anyway.) Often, there are more complicated, less selfish reasons for not getting the job done until the last minute. Habitual holiday shopping procrastinators generally fall into one or more of the categories below.”

Those categories include, but are not limited to, the following:

• people are overwhelmed during the Christmas season;
• people are perfectionists;
• some people believe they work best under pressure;
• some people are overly optimistic;
• not liking the recipient of the gift;
• being genuinely thoughtful and taking time to find the right gift.