There are fewer than 50 shopping days left until Christmas--I'm being an ostrich about the actual number, but I realize it's freakily soon. A couple of my friends are already bragging about having all their presents bought and wrapped on Facebook. Where's that 'unfriend' button?

This year, I was planning on doing as much shopping as possible online. What's easier than sitting in the comfort of my own home in PJs, drinking big mugs of super liquored up gently spiked eggnog, tipsily adding things to my virtual shopping cart, and getting a mystery package 10 days later that I don't remember ordering or paying for? Easy!

But I just can't bring myself to do all my Christmas shopping online. I think I actually enjoy the stress. I like waiting in crazy lines and pushing through people. I like braving the crowds, the parking lots, and the sale racks. I like spending an afternoon cursing humankind and then arriving home with my bags full of presents and actually having a reason to crack an eggnog--to celebrate my triumphant return with gifts that took some effort to find and not knocking anyone out in the process.

I'm all for shopping online for those hard-to-get things, like items that we poor suckas in Halifax can't find in stores (ahem, J.Crew, Sephora and Bath & Body Works--that'd be you.) But for everything else, Christmas shopping online feels like cheating somehow, like running to the Superstore on the way to a potluck, buying a box of cookies, throwing them in a Tupperware container and pretending you baked them. Act like you've never done it. That's what I thought!

So this November...and probably December...I'll be braving the pre-Christmas craziness. Hopefully, having a list (and sticking to it!) will help make things as easy and painless as possible, and I'm planning to make or bake gifts for people when I can. I think enjoying a "special" eggnog before heading to the mall might help ease the sting of the whole experience, too.