MyRegistry.com For All Your Holiday Needs @MyRegistry

You can tell that Christmas is coming, because the day after Halloween the candy canes and egg nog were in the stores. While it may be too soon to start decorating for Christmas, it is definitely not too soon to start planning your shopping. If you are like me, with family spread out across the country, and people that you buy gifts for but don’t see very often, it can be very daunting. When you have children, grandparents, parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces and nephews, and that is before you even add friends, teachers and coaches, it can be very overwhelming. I feel like we should have started in February! Then when you add up all of the trips to the mall and specialty stores, fighting for parking and facing long lines, it can really make you feel like a Grinch.

A few years ago in my extended family we started exchanging lists of things everyone wanted for Christmas. This was an improvement, but still not foolproof. You still had to go to the mall, hope you were picking out the right item, and hope that no one else bought the same gift for the same recipient.

Now I am going to ask you to imagine the perfect solution to this issue. Think about a universal online registry, kind of like a baby or bridal registry, but where anyone can go in a register for the gifts that they want, from any store in the world. Then anyone who wants to buy a gift for that person can go to the registry from the comfort of their own home, purchase the gift, and have it shipped, sometimes even with free shipping! Christmas shopping can be over in an afternoon, over a cup of tea and with Christmas carols playing on the radio.

You can stop imagining now, because MyRegistry.com is the perfect solution to your holiday conundrums. You and your kids can go on to MyRegistry.com and set up your dream holiday wish list. Select items from any store (there is even a way to add items from brick and mortar stores!) and then you can share your wish list with your friends and family with an eCard, a written announcement, or through any social media outlet that you prefer, using your own customized URL.

MyRegistry.com helps to take the guess-work out of Christmas shopping. Maybe you’ve heard people say that registering for gifts is not polite, or it is “cheating.” Don’t listen to them. People buy gifts for others because they care about them and want to give them something they want. Gift purchasers don’t want to be stressed out wondering if they have bought the right thing for someone, in the right size, color or scent, and then have the recipient go through the hassle of returning something that wasn’t quite right. MyRegistry.com allows aunts, uncles and grandparents to find just the right gift for picky teens (because who knows what they really want anyhow?) that they might not see as often as they would like.

I am having my children set up a MyRegistry.com wish list – other family members and I can browse different gift selections and know that anything we pick is something that the kids would like. We can choose things that match our own personal giving style, and select something within our budgets. MyRegistry.com is also a great way to get your spouse to get you the gift you actually want, without having to buy it for yourself and wrap it up.

Technology has allowed us to think outside the box when doing our year-round shopping, and now MyRegistry.com makes it easy and fun to shop for the holidays. We can change our way of thinking about shopping, making it easier and more affordable for ourselves, lowering our stress, and bringing the joy back into gift-giving. And we can use all of the time we save to actually finish those Christmas cards that never seem to be done in time for mailing!

This article is written in cooperation with MyRegistry.com but the opinion is purely my own.