Why I don't do Black Friday (in stores!)

Let me start, by saying, this is my own little rant. It is not in judgement toward anyone who ventured out to find the sales (I understand that finding that perfect gift is made even more perfect when you find a great deal on it). I completely understand why people do, and I don't judge or blame anyone for deciding to do that. I, however, will never be seen in a store at 5 am (or the night before at this point) on any day, particularly Black Friday.

I worked in retail for a lot of years before stopping to become a stay at home mom. I used to have to stop my Thanksgiving celebrations early to go sleep, so that I could get up at 3 am to be at work by 4. This used to cut my holiday short, not to mention, it was exhausting the next day. Now, retail employees are having to cut their festivities short so that they can go to work that night. I am so glad that it wasn't that way when I worked there.

In my time in retail, sometimes, Black Friday was fun. It was action packed, and exciting. It was something that we had worked for, and it was fun watching the action unfold. There were times, however, that it was downright dangerous and scary. Once, we had police shut our store down, because we were filled far past capacity (hard to imagine, right?). Another time, we were shut down because the employee who opened the doors that morning was literally trampled and stepped on by hundreds of people. Luckily, she only suffered broken ribs (I say luckily like it was a good thing, right?!). It could have been SO much worse, and I'm so grateful that it wasn't.

Not only that, but I also really enjoy getting and decorating our Christmas Tree on Friday! That's kind of our family's new tradition over these past few years. We go to a Christmas Tree farm, walk around until we see one that we like, cut it down and bring it home. I just don't want to take away from that family time to go shopping.

All of that being said, if time allows, I will spend some time online at least checking out the deals on store's websites.

These are my reasons for NOT shopping in stores on Black Friday. Did you shop? Did you get any great deals?? If so, I'd love to hear about them!