Finding reasons to be grateful

The numbers are in, and they’re bah-humbug bad.

Holiday sales of luxury items dropped more than 30% this year. Department stores and specialty shops were down 20%. Electronics purchases fell 27% compared to 2007.

But I didn’t need Friday’s official tally to tell me that.

I could see it coming as I pulled out the boxes I’d saved from last Christmas: Urban Outfitters. Nordstrom. Abercrombie & Fitch. . . . To be filled this year with socks from Target, sweats from Old Navy, half-price shirts from the sale rack at Gap.

Last year we splurged on luxury items: a car navigation system, an iPod and a pair of $150 Uggs.

This year’s high-end presents? Flannel pajamas from Victoria’s Secret; on sale for $29.99 a pair.

Perfect for hunkering down at home and waiting out a tough new year.

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Thank goodness the Christmas tree sellers saw this coming. A bargain at the tree lot the week before Christmas set the stage for my family’s holiday cheer.

“We knew things were going to be tight,” said Doug Bennett, whose family operates half a dozen lots in Southern California. “But we also knew people want to feel good about the tree they pick, especially in tough times.”

So Bennett and many area tree lot operators kept the prices at 2007 levels. “People were really surprised and happy when they came on the lot,” Bennett told me Friday as he made the rounds, shutting down his lots.

I’d called him because I was one of those happy shoppers. I hauled home a $40 tree so tall and wide that last year’s lights went only halfway up.

I didn’t know the bargains were industrywide. I thought Christmas angels were on our side.

My daughters had fallen in love with the kind of tree you only see on Christmas cards. It was lush and fragrant and perfectly shaped, and -- even at last year’s prices -- more than our budget would allow. They offered to kick in their Christmas shopping money.

But when we hauled it to the front, the cashier ignored the price tag. “Looks like a 6-foot tree to me,” she said. The young man carrying it for us set it down, looked up at its tip towering over us all and agreed.

Either this is a wonderful Christmas gift, I thought, or they’re really bad at measuring.

It was too tall when we got it home. We had to lop off some branches and still the angel’s halo brushed the ceiling when we set her on top. But wrapped with a few cheap strings of lights, the tree lit up the room like a star in the night.

And it seemed a fitting compromise -- the grandest tree we’ve ever had, with the fewest presents underneath.

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It’s been a belt-tightening year for everyone. Even those of us lucky enough to have jobs, homes and savings accounts feel the ripples of economic tremors.

But I enjoyed my Christmas shopping more than I have in years, without the pressure to spend too much. And I felt that same odd sense of relief among friends and fellow shoppers this year.

The crowds at the mall seemed smaller and less rushed, and there were bargains in every store. Everyone seemed to understand when a purchase had to be delayed because a card was declined, and the clerk had to clear it with the credit department.

It’s not so embarrassing when we’re all in the same boat.

We stood in line sharing stories of home-equity loans canceled and credit limits lowered, and tips on where to save money on good wrapping paper and warm mittens.

Even the children seemed to get it this time. My 12-year-old neighbor told me it took only 11 minutes for he and his sister to open all the gifts under their tree. “We didn’t get everything we wanted, but we liked what we got,” he said.

My daughters skipped their gift exchanges with friends; they all have jobs now and their own pennies to pinch.

And I was grateful I didn’t have to rack my brain for gift ideas for friends. I could accept a home-baked noodle kugel and reciprocate with a fresh rosemary wreath.

But I did allow myself one impulse buy: a $14.99 framed poster of Barack Obama that I grabbed as I returned a movie to Blockbuster. “Our Destiny is not written for us, but by us,” it stated.

It’s not peace on Earth, but -- for me, for right now -- it works.

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sandy.banks@latimes.com