Christmas gift spending amounts at an all-time high

People started trickling in at Mall Del Norte at seven a.m. Thursday.

After 6 p.m. on Christmas Eve, the St. Matthews Mall can put a bow on another busy Christmas shopping season.

It’s why several retailers keep their doors open a little later.

“My daughter and I used to wait just on objective to fight… you know right before closing time they have specials 10 – 15% off of what it was already”, shopper Shirley Williams said.

“Yeah, actually I was not expecting it to be closed”, said a last minute chopper. Area malls close at 6 p.m. for the holiday.

He was not the only one out and about just hours before the stores closed.

If you’re part of the last-minute shoppers, you’re not alone. Economists say those sales aren’t added to retail figures until the card is redeemed, but that doesn’t happen until after Christmas. It’s always like this at the last week of Christmas. If you’re looking for one of these local options, your best bet is to call ahead and check. There’s a lot more unique gifts here.

Over at Mall Del Norte, the crowds are keenly aware of this deadline. “I wouldn’t even be out here if my wife didn’t ask me to come get a pie”, said shopper Michael Harbuck.

Mr Foran said: “We’ve seen in the last few days an uplift of 30% on what we do on a normal weekday, so I’m trilled with the way Braford is embracing The Broadway. So, the watch word is to be patient”, said Patrick Beckerdite.

Holiday spending is expected to grow 3.7 percent this year – topping $630 billion.

Santa who is here too, will be leaving at five to make sure he meets his midnight deadline.

And Christmas is about what’s really important, so many people stopped to help one boy as he raised money for his school Washington DC trip. “At this point it’s gift cards”.

Queues of up to two hours were reported at Marks & Spencer’s food collection service in some stores, after a BBC Good Food poll suggested nearly a third of consumers (31%) plan to do their main Christmas food shop today.