George,

"Buy Nothing Day" is an okay concept if you get a few weeks off around the holidays, if you don't have young kids, and if you don't have primary responsibility for purchasing, boxing up, and shipping out gifts. For me, that Friday is a "bonus" day that has the potential to make the season a little less stressful, however it is used.

I suppose my shopping on Friday was due to two factors: first, I didn't have to put in a real day at work, so I went shopping alone on my way into the office for a couple of hours. I grabbed the Barbie stuff on the kids' lists (I am considering doing away with letters to Santa and lists of any sort for next year) and managed to score a teal Game Boy (the games she wanted were gone) for my 6th grader before they sold out.

Second, in the afternoon I took the 6-year olds out to Toys R Us and Shenanigans to shop for their Texas cousins because it didn't seem like the stores would be any less crazy on any Saturday between now and Christmas (and we have to get the boxes in the mail within a couple of weeks) -- and my kids had been home sick for a week, so we didn't really need any more quiet time at home.

We keep things pretty simple, mostly for the kids. And now, on November 28, I have done the shopping and most of the gifts to be sent out are wrapped. It feels great! Now I intend to have fun decorating and baking.

Happy Holidays!

Susan McGinnis (electronic mail, November 28, 2000).