Junior consumers: Elementary students do some holiday shopping

Rick Charmoli | Cadillac News Gregory Bush, 6, wraps a present for one of his parents with the help of Jalane Griswold at the Lincoln Elementary Holiday Shop.

CADILLAC - Holiday shopping is in full effect even if the consumer is 5 years old.

For many years, the Lincoln Elementary Holiday Shop allowed students at the school to purchase gifts for friends, family and loved ones. Although in years past the gifts the students could buy were not always of the best quality, the past two years have been different.

Crafters from the area have come to the annual holiday shopping event and allowed students to purchase quality gifts at a low price.

Josh Hoeppner said he likes Christmas shopping for many reasons.

“I like to Christmas shop because I like to buy things for my parents. It's really fun because you get to buy big things and wrap it yourself,” the 8-year-old said. “I like wrapping.”

Shopping may be fun but it is not Josh's favorite thing about the Christmas season. In his opinion, the best thing about the season is snow and all the fun that goes along with it.

“I like snow because you get to build forts and play snowball fights,” he said.

Cole Sapp said he also likes to go shopping.

The 10-year-old said whenever he sees something he likes or his mom likes, he buys it and hides it from her. On Friday, Cole was shopping for both his mother and father.

Likewise, Cole was not just in the giving mood when it came to shopping for his parents. He also gave a fellow student a quarter so he could purchase a gift for his parents, too.

“I gave him a quarter because I didn't want him to feel bad,” he said.

The gifts Josh, Cole and other students bought were made by either the seven different crafters who brought their wares to the school or by the Parent-Teachers of Lincoln, according to P.T.L. President Sue Baker.

Baker said the P.T.L. asked the crafters to bring small items to Holiday Shop and most of the things were sold at cost, she said.

“The kids love the crafts. This is the second year with the crafters but we have done some kind of Christmas shopper for years,” she said.

rcharmoli@cadillacnews.com | 775-NEWS (6397)