What kind of holiday shopper are you?
Try our fun quiz to find out whether you’ll be organised this year or if you’re the Christmas shopper from hell.
1) You buy Christmas presents for:
a) Only those you really have to because you wouldn’t want to be wasteful
b) Everyone you know
c) Anyone who fits the sweater you bought half an hour before the shops closed on Christmas Eve
2) You wrote your holiday gift list on:
a) An erasable pad
b) A special piece of stationery that you’ve laminated
c) Your phone bill — just before you went and posted it.
3) You buy your Christmas cards:
a) From a charity organisation
b) Last year, at Harrods January sales
c) You send the ones you forgot to post the year before.
4) You start shopping:
a) When the Greenpeace catalogue comes
b) In last year’s Harrods January sales
c) An hour before the shops shut on Christmas Eve.
5) You’re carrying a lot of shopping bags. Are they:
a) Sensible string bags
b) Gucci bags only
c) On the ground — the handles have snapped?
6) You believe that wrapping paper should always be:
a) Recyclable
b) Hand-made and touched with gold leaf
c) A bit scorched where you’ve ironed the creases out.
7) A woman nips in front of you to nab a bargain loofah that would be perfect for your mum. Do you:
a) Smile and look elsewhere
b) Hook her legs out from under her with your cunningly-placed umbrella
c) Weep?
You stop for a rest. Do you refresh yourself with?
a) A lovely cup of tea
b) A holiday to San Tropez
c) The bottle of whisky you’ve just bought for Uncle Harry?
9) It’s all over and the shops are not open for the holiday. Do you feel:
a) Quietly satisfied
b) For the phone — there must be a last-minute flight to New York
c) That you wish there really was a Santa Clause to come and get you out of this mess?
10) You think Boxing Day sales are:
a) A disgrace
b) A good way to get a start on next Christmas
c) A good chance to get a start on this Christmas
How did you do?
Count up your scores:
Mostly a’s
You’re the shopper everyone loves to hate. You’re never flustered and always prepared. You cruise through Christmas shopping — mostly because you start in September. You’re environmentally aware and exceedingly responsible.
Mostly b’s
It’s a wonder you have time to make friends to send gifts to, what with your jet-setting and all the serious shopping you have to fit into your hectic schedule. But then again, you’re not too bothered about who gets your gifts, as long as you can shower enough of them around to look impressively generous. You sound a lot like Santa.
Mostly c’s
You may be hopeless, but you’re not alone. Around 70 per cent of the population (and 95 per cent of men) are just as last-minute as you. Of course, you have to stay in bed on Christmas Day to recover from the stress.