OWEN O’ROURKE / ITEM PHOTO
Stephanie Capone shopping in the Square One Mall in Saugus.
BY BRIDGET TURCOTTE/THE DAILY ITEM
SAUGUS — Shoppers at the Square One Mall are stepping up their Christmas shopping game.
With just two weeks until the big day, Karla Martinez and Elmer Amador of Everett visited the mall Friday afternoon for their first Christmas shopping excursion of the season.
“We just started today,” Martinez said. “We’re (Disney’s) Frozen fanatics so we had to stop by the Disney store for a few things.”
Amador said most of the people they are shopping for this holiday season are children.
The pair were shopping with their son in tow, who will be celebrating his first Christmas this year, Martinez said. However, she anticipated his grandparents would be doing the bulk of the shopping for him.
“Its exciting for (the kids),” Amador said.
“We will probably be shopping this weekend and all next week,” said Martinez.
Also on her first shopping trip of the season was Kristine Andren of Saugus, who said she was shopping for her nieces.
“Today’s my first shopping day,” she said. “I’m going to have to come back to this mall this weekend and probably go to a few others too.
“I’ll probably be out here until Christmas eve, knowing me,” Andren said.
“This is my second trip out,” said Lynnfield’s David Bjorkman, who was joyfully in the spirit, wearing a Patriot’s Santa hat as he shopped for his wife, two daughters, and their boyfriends.
“I wear (the hat) when the spirit strikes me,” Bjorkman said.
Bjorkman said he had a strategy for getting his shopping finished.
“I already picked the low-hanging fruit,” he said. “It gets tougher and tougher (to choose gifts) as you go on. I got the easy ones out of the way.”
While many shoppers admitted they were just getting started, others were already wrapping up.
“I’m pretty much done,” said Stephanie Capone of Peabody, who was shopping for her boyfriend. Capone said the gifts she had just purchased were the last on her list.
“I like to get it done ahead of time,” she said. “I like to wrap them and get it out of the way.”
Many shoppers Sunday also brought their pets to the mall to pose with santa for “purr-fect” Christmas card photos. The mall held two separate events when pets could come in after normal Santa hours (6 to 8 p.m.).
Students from Saugus High School were also wrapping gifts on the lower level of the mall near Macy’s. The students will be at the mall during mall hours until Christmas eve.
Bridget Turcotte can be reached at [email protected]
