The eleventh hour

ANDREW GLAZER

He swears it’s because he’s been on the road for 13 months and he just

hasn’t had the time.

She said she was trying to “avoid the whole mess this year,” but was

shamed into doing it.

And the 39 people waiting in line to buy gift certificates at 10 a.m. --

they were too grumpy to talk about it.

But nearly everyone at South Coast Plaza doing their last-minute

Christmas shopping Thursday morning had an excuse. A good one.

“I really haven’t had too much time, with shows every day,” said Michael

Hamblin, the twirly mustached prop master of “Fame -- The Musical,”

playing at the nearby Orange County Performing Arts Center. “I have only

two hours before the next show to buy gifts for five people I work with.”

Hamblin bought five prewrapped packages of gourmet chocolates at Godiva.

The tiny mirrored store, shimmering with gold wrapping, was crammed with

more than a dozen frantic shoppers. One surly man carried a stack of nine

boxes under his chin. He said he accidentally left the gifts he had

bought ahead of time at his South Bay home and was forced to improvise.

“I put a lot more thought into the other gifts, but I guess I’ll have to

return them,” he said.

Pamela Johnson, a Long Beach resident, thought she wouldn’t buy gifts for

anyone this year.

“I just didn’t want to get caught up in it,” she said. “I said ‘To hell

with Christmas this year!”’

But then Johnson -- who was with a friend also shopping for last-minute

gifts -- saw presents marked with her name under her aunt’s Christmas

tree. And then her sister’s.

“Now are you going to go to their dinners empty-handed?” she asked. “No.

So I’m feeling a lot of pressure to get this done.”

Mall merchants say shopping levels crescendo until the holidays pass. In

fact, for upscale jewelers such as Cartier and Bailey, Banks & Biddle,

Christmas Eve is the biggest shopping day of the year.

“Men always wait until the last minute,” said an employee who repairs

jewelry at Bailey, Banks & Biddle. “A lot of them take the day off on

Christmas Eve.”

But Beth Russell, dressed in sweats for rigorous shopping, insisted she

was ahead of the game. She said she was “nine-tenths finished with her

Christmas shopping.”

“I reserve Dec. 24 to spend time with my family,” she said. “I’m just

buying stocking stuffers today.”

Russell said she begins shopping for Christmas a full year ahead of time,

a practice she recommends for everyone.

“That way, I can find gifts that really mean something to the recipient,”

she said.

But Russell said her plan does have its drawbacks.

“I store the gifts in my closet,” she said. “And my curious husband has

to see them there all year.”