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Wow. Where did all of the time go? It seemed like just yesterday, we were making summer plans and suddenly, there are already commercials on television encouraging us to make layaway plans in time for Christmas.

If you’re someone who has a “holiday shopping routine” of running out on Christmas Eve to pick up presents for your family members and friends, why not break out of that mold this year and try doing something a bit radical: Consider doing your holiday shopping now.

Sure, it requires a bit more pre-planning on your part, but there are some pretty good reasons why you should think about breaking out of your “last-minute mold”. We’ve enclosed five of them below:

You can get some good deals. One of the best reasons to consider shopping now is because, being that it’s not quite time for the holiday rush, you can find some pretty good deals on seasonal fall and winter items. The reason why is due to the fact that while a lot of stores may not want to “put it on record”, after Thanksgiving, many items tend to be marked up from the prices on them now. So, the sale that you think is a bargain during the holiday rush is really just a discount from a price that was increased (after Thanksgiving) to begin with.

You can shop in peace. The traffic jams, the crowded malls, the sometimes rude sales associates—these are all things that you have to deal with when you wait to do your Christmas shopping during that time that everyone else does. It’s so much easier to stay in the holiday spirit when it doesn’t take 45 minutes to find a parking spot and you don’t have to settle for what’s left on the already gone-through racks.

You can find more variety. This reason actually plays off of the reason that we just mentioned. There aren’t a lot of people who are out shopping for presents right now. This means that there are plenty of things in stock and options to choose from. If you wait until the last minute, oftentimes there is simply not as much variety.

You don’t have to rush yourself. Does anyone really make a good decision when they are rushing? Usually not. When you put yourself under the pressure to “hurry up and get something”, sometimes it’s not the best kind of present. However, when you pace yourself by allotting several weeks to shop, you can pick out gifts that you know the people on your list will really like. Another perk is that having more time will help you to do a better job at sticking within your budget.

You can actually enjoy the holiday season. Something that weddings and holidays tend to have in common is that you can spend so much time preparing for those occasions that you end up not really getting to enjoy them as much as you would like. By doing your holiday shopping now, it gives you time to drink hot chocolate, watch Christmas classics and surf online at websites like FreeSamples.org for a few stocking stuffers sans all of the shopping stress. A Christmas with less stress is a Christmas filled with lots of joy!