Have you prepared for Christmas yet? Indications are that if you are a woman then you will already be prepared but if you are a man you will have done nothing.

A survey by the Halifax building society has shown that women are generally far better prepared for Christmas and for beating the effects of the credit crunch than men. Around one in three (30%) or women who save for Christmas have said that they started saving earlier this year compared with only 15% of men. Nearl half of the women surveyed (48%) said that they had written a Christmas gift list but only 15% of men said they had done the same.

Although there have been reports that the economic downturn is over many of those surveyed have said that they have changed their shopping habits this year. About half (47%) of women and around 30% of men have reported that they will be speding less on gifts this year compared to last. Most of the men interviewed (75%) said that they would be changing their buying habits by shopping in the pre Christmas sales.

Many more are doing their Christmas shopping online this year with around 28% of women and 43% or men saying they would be doing some or all of their gift shopping online. Lots of parents leave the purchase of large, main gift items for their children until last. This avoids weeks of concealment with their children trying to find where their presents have been hidden.

The best advice for consumers this Christmas is that shopping around is likely to present some money saving bargains. There are many stores providing some fantastic pre-Christmas discounts, some as high as 25%. There are also lots of online discount codes that offer significant savings.

Make certain you have a wonderful, restful and relaxing Christmas.

Buy RC Cars and other great gifts like Hornby Trains from Modelzone.co.uk. And you might like to enter their Christmas Hornby Competition. Free to enter and you could win a fantastic Hornby Train Set.