Last minute shoppers not just an urban myth

By Ja’Rena Lunsford

Published: December 25, 2007

Jayson Asher quickly bounced from fragrance to fragrance as he balanced a gift basket filled with lotions in one hand and a shopping bag in another.

Time was running out for the Yukon resident, and he still had so many questions.

"What about cucumber melon,” Asher asked the sales associate at Penn Square Mall's Bath & Body Works. "Do you like vanilla? Is sweet pea all right?”

The scent Asher's mom, stepmother and wife would receive for Christmas was all dependent on the sales associate — and her nose.

"I have to come in here and find a girl to help me out,” Asher said. "It's sad.”

Perhaps sadder was the fact that Asher was finishing and beginning his Christmas Shopping on Monday, just a few hours before his family was scheduled to open gifts.

For those who consider the last minute Christmas shopper a myth, Asher has news for them: "That's me,” he said. "I'm that guy.”

Retailers were filled with a lot of those "guys” Monday as shoppers rushed to finish — or in Asher's case, begin — their holiday shopping.

"I woke up this morning and realized I hadn't bought a thing,” Asher said as he stood in the checkout line at Bath & Body Works. "I hate shopping so much that I put it off until the last minute, and then I end up coming on the worst possible day.”

Although Asher makes plans to start his shopping early every year, it's a goal he can't seem to reach.

"So here I am every year, wandering around the mall on Christmas Eve with all of the other husbands looking aimlessly,” he said.

Although men were not the only shoppers perusing the mall stores on Christmas Eve, there was no denying that the final Christmas countdown brought out its fare share of the males.

Husbands and boyfriends peered through the glass cases at jewelry stores.

Large, rough hands embraced small pink Victoria's Secret bags and burgundy jewelry boxes, proving Christmas Eve was not the time to be afraid to show one's gentler side.

Some shoppers had the look of conquest on their face as they carried their final purchases to their car, while others had the look of exasperation, unsure if a pendant or a set of earrings was the right choice.

Donnie Winkle said the amount of procrastinating male shoppers would greatly decrease if women did one thing: drop hints.

"Women won't tell you exactly what they want,” Winkle said. "So we have to walk around the mall trying to figure out what they want.”

Winkle's scavenger hunt for a gift for his fiancé was over by 11 a.m. when he found the final clue in Helzberg Diamonds.

"I got her something good,” he said, smiling.

Being a last minute shopper is not gender specific, a fact Niki Puffinbarger proved as she and her 6-year-old son, Aaron, searched for a gift for her husband.

"This is our last gift, and I'm relieved,” the Oklahoma City resident said as she looked at glass menagerie items in Dillard's. "Having only one more thing left is pretty good for us.”

Katherine Mullin doesn't see shopping on Christmas Eve as last minute; instead, it's a tradition for the Denver City, Texas, resident.

She comes to Oklahoma City every year to take her grandchildren Christmas shopping for their parents.

"It usually happens around Christmas Eve,” Brooke Winegardner, 10, said of the shopping trip with her grandma. "We've got a lot of wrapping to do. We've got a lot of stuff for my mom and dad.”

With just a few hours left until his family's Christmas celebration, Asher did a quick look through the men's section at Dillard's before heading to Toys "R" Us for his two children — the easiest bunch to shop for.

"Everyone else gets gift cards,” Asher said. "Those are easy to wrap.”

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