Meet someone who has all her Christmas shopping done

Lindale Mall hums with activity. A brown-haired boy excitedly drags a frazzled parent from store to store. A couple, their hands entwined, stroll.

Days until Christmas: 15 and counting. Prime shopping time.

Everyone seems to be taking part in the holiday’s ultimate tradition. Except one. She’s done.

With the exception of her husband’s stocking material — but those items can wait, can’t they? — Becky Esker of Cedar Rapids completed all of her Christmas shopping by Halloween.

It’s all about organization.

“My innate nature is to plan and prepare,” she says, in repose among the hordes of shoppers near Lindale’s center. “And it drives me crazy, all this chaos. The lines, the people. You can’t even get down the aisles.”

Throughout the year, Esker keeps a keen eye out for presents for her family and friends, refusing to let Christmas sneak up on her.

“I actually get a lot of my shopping done the day after Christmas” for next year, she says.

With every gift idea and purchase, Esker marks it down in her “gifts” folder — under “G,” she says — before she tucks it away in storage.

For most people who push back their shopping until the next day, the next week, Esker’s approach is alien.

Lisa Williams of Coggon and her daughter, Stacey, weave throughout Lindale searching for just the right gift, the whole hurried experience a joy.

“It would take the fun out of it to be that organized,” Williams opines. “And even if we don’t find what we want, part of the fun is thinking of something at the last minute.”

Not for Esker, who snakes around Lindale’s parking lot, glad the December excursion is a rarity. She’d rather be at home watching the temperatures drop, sitting in front of a fire with a cup of cocoa in hand.

“This is why I did all my shopping months ago,” she says. “To avoid this.”

That’s why, she says, she shops so early. To take away the stress. And to cut the cost of the holiday.

Her Christmas ideology is spreading like Christmas pudding among her family members, Esker says. Her 13-year-old daughter, Madison, who’s labeled Esker as the “organization lady,” will probably begin shopping incredibly early as well when she’s a bit older.

“It feels so nice” to be done, she says. “Just today someone asked me, ‘Are you ready for Christmas?’

“And I said, ‘You know what? I think I am.’”