Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Pic-N-Save

This is a random post, but just indulge me.

I have been thinking a lot about Christmas traditions, and what I did growing up. For some reason I keep thinking about how we did our Christmas shopping. With ten kids in a family, we needed someplace that was economical, but also had a wide range of merchandise that would work for our varying ages of people. My mom found the perfect store, it was called "Pic-N-Save." Think of it as a mixture of a dollar store and a "Big Lots." Pic-N-Save was way better than both of those. It was kind of far away, (in a slightly sketchy area of town) so we would all pile into the blue Suburban for the drive together. On the way to the store we would all do a brainstorm of things that we needed/wanted that would be inexpensive. (Buying for so many people gets expensive as a child!) Here is a sample of things we would put on the list...

-ball point pens
-erasers
-highlighters
-notebooks
-folders
-hair ties
-combs
-brush
-makeup

Once we got to the store we would all split up. It was probably the only time we were allowed to wander around a store by ourselves. The older kids would help the younger kids. We ALWAYS had a jacket or sweatshirt. We would put the coat in the bottom of our cart, and then if we ran into one of our siblings (which always happened) we could keep things covered. We had so much fun trying to keep things secret from each other. It was always scary to be putting something in your cart, and worry that the recipient might come around the corner at any moment.

Buying things at Pic-N-Save also required a lot of creativity. The store had a little bit of everything, but you never knew what would be there. Gifts like scotch tape, and a ball of twine were not unusual, but they were always perfect for the recipient. (Don't boys always need tape and twine?) I think my dad probably got fifteen hammers over the years from the store, but we kept losing his hammers so he didn't mind. I still have a porcelain jewelry box from one of my sisters. It's white with little strawberries on it. There were also a lot of puzzles, games, ceramic figurines, and calendars given through the years.

After we all made it through the check-out process (that was an event in itself...) we would then pile back in the car for home. Usually we were anxious to start wrapping right away.

Even though the gifts were sometimes silly, weird, or cheap I think we all loved that tradition. I hope that in a few years we can start something similar. My parents fostered a lot of love and frugality in those Christmas shopping trips.

3 comments:

debby said...

i have similar memories of walking to bartell's drug store with all four of our siblings and audrey and i helping ray and beth buy gifts for the other siblings without them seeing what we were shopping for. candy bars were often purchased, along with other similar gifts.

emi. said...

this post is cracking everyone up! we read it out loud!

Diane said...

Pic'N'Save! I remember that store. Maybe it was a southern Calif. thing. It would indeed be the perfect store to shop for 10 siblings in.