MUNCY TOWNSHIP -- Forget Black Friday, people are starting their Christmas shopping earlier this year. Many say the Columbus Day sales at the Lycoming Mall are hard to resist, so they took advantage of the bargains.
Santa and his elves, along with Christmas trees are in the windows of some stores at the Lycoming Mall near Williamsport. Other store-fronts are covered in sale signs. Shoppers in Lycoming County put two and two together and started Christmas shopping a bit early on this holiday weekend.
"You get a head start on the sales and it's not crowded. I can get probably a good 50% of my shopping done today," Diane Foresman said.
Some people say they always start their Christmas shopping on Columbus Day. Maryanne Reynolds and her mom Maria picked up the essentials.
"Just Christmas shopping bags to put little gifts in. We're looking for bargains and we found some pretty good ones today," Reynolds said.
"Right now we're finding out there are a lot of sales. If it doesn't say sale we don't go there unless it says sale," Maria Wahler said.
Even though there are some people doing their Christmas shopping at the Lycoming Mall, a lot of others say it is way to early to start thinking about that.
"It gets earlier and earlier every year. I think it's a little crazy because there are usually sales throughout the year. I do most of my shopping closer to Christmas and online," Chelsea Graw said.
"I feel like people kind-of pass over Thanksgiving and Thanksgiving is very important, so i think we should wait until after Thanksgiving to start Christmas shopping," Jenna Hunter said.
"I think that's crazy. I don't know, Christmas should be the whole season but you can't over pass Thanksgiving," Madison Taylor said.
Speaking of shopping early this year, some people said they did most of their holiday shopping during the "after Christmas sales" last year.