How I managed to skip Amazon for Christmas

There may be affiliate links in my post. Affiliate links mean that if you sign up after clicking through, I will get some extra money from the company. I do not use links that cost you anything!

For the past couple of years I've told myself that I would cut back on my use of Amazon for my Christmas shopping. Bezos has more than enough money, the staff are overworked and underpaid, and there are plenty of small businesses that could use my money and will pay UK taxes with it.

Every year I end up inevitably failing. I will get some things from places like Waterstones, but eventually I'll resort to Amazon as it's cheaper and thus I can "buy more" for family and friends. And then over the course of the next year I read more about the poor treatment of Amazon warehouse staff and feel guilty and resolve to not do it again.

However for Christmas 2019 I finally achieved my goal. There was not a single present under the Christmas tree that has come delivered from Amazon. And in many ways this year was almost accidental.

Planning early

In the middle of October I sat down and looked at my plans for the weekends before then and Christmas. I'd booked a few trips over the autumn and knew my time was getting filled up so decided to see how bad it was.

Imagine my shock to realise that the only free weekends I had from 23 November through to Christmas day were Saturday 30 November and Sunday 1 December, and Saturday 21 and Sunday 22 December. The last weekend in particular was far too late to be Christmas shopping! Shops would be horribly overcrowded and loads of things would be impossible to find.

So with that in mind I knew I would need to get all my shopping done before December began. It didn't need to be wrapped but it did need to be purchased. With this much lead time I knew there was no real reason to be diving on to Amazon, except to take a look at the wishlists of family for some inspiration.

Local small businesses

I'm very lucky in that my large village has an independent bookshop. Their website stated that they can order in books for you if they don't have what you're looking for in stock.

I emailed them to confirm what I needed could be ordered. Once they replied I sent back a list of the titles and authors. They confirmed the price, ordered them for me, and then two days later emailed to say everything was ready to collect. I popped down one day after work, paid in the shop (so no need for Paypal fees) and came home with a large brown paper bag of books.

It was such a great experience that I've since ordered more from them. Yes, it's not quite as convenient as having something drop through my door. But I don't subscribe to Prime, so most deliveries take a week or even occasionally longer. My local bookshop got everything within two days, if I'd been quicker off the mark I could have gone and picked them up on the afternoon of the second day. Overall it was a much better service.

Follow independent online retailers on social media

Small businesses are increasingly spending money on advertising on social media, particularly Instagram. If I see one I like, or whose style I know a family member will like, then I follow them.

Not only do I then get regular posts about their work, which reminds me that I want to buy something from them, but I also get alerts for sales. Yes, it's best to pay full price for an independent if you can. But if the only way something will be in your price range is if it has a discount - then wait for a sale! Depending on when they have them you may find you can tick a gift or two off the shopping list in August or September, as they clear space for seasonal stock.

Make the most of your Christmas excursions

One of my booked up Saturdays was for a coach trip to Bury St Edmund's Christmas market. A week before we were due to go I looked on their website for a list of stallholders. This gave me an idea of what types of products I would be able to buy (turned out there were a lot of distilleries!) and if there were any stalls in particular I wanted to look out for.

I then had a good idea of some gifts to look out for for my family, and could prioritise finding the stalls once I arrived. A few turned out to be not quite what I was looking for (some of those gin bottles are really small!) but on the other hand some had "market-only" versions of items that they weren't selling online.

In the end I came home with a nice selection of gifts which really helped kick-off the gift buying.

Click and collect

This was another time saver. There are a few "chain" shops (like Hotel Chocolat) where I buy the same things as Christmas presents each year. This year I blocked out two evenings in one week and dedicated them to shopping with click and collect options. I made sure I selected the same Saturday for collection, which was the last Saturday I had free in November.

Even with click and collect I was still able to get cashback by buying online through Quidco. It also meant that I could stick to my budgets!

Before picking everything up I made sure I made a list of the places I had to collect orders from, and had the emails saved on my phone to show in the shops. I managed to get around quickly, and it was much easier than trying to think of things on the day.

Make quicker decisions

This was probably one of the biggest factors. Normally I dawdle over deciding Christmas presents, and inevitably something will sell out before I decide to go back and buy it.

Since time was of the essence I decided to go with gut instinct and buy things when I saw them. Rather than end up buying things I regretted, I found that my initial thoughts were correct and people liked the things I'd got them.

The final result

Having done all this last Christmas, I'm now even more determined to continue it next Christmas. I also managed to finish my shopping by the first week of December, so instead of stressing out about how I was going to sort it all out, I could relax and focus just on wrapping everything up.

My aim for Christmas 2020 is to try and get a bit more from Etsy. You can set your search parameters so that you only see shops based in the UK, and you can also set for things like free postage as well. I tend to get Christmas-themed washi tape from shops on there, so getting some gifts shouldn't be too much of a stretch!