Shopping showdown

Underneath those songs of holiday cheer, do we hear a collective groan? Riiight. All the shopping that goes hand-in-hand with the season makes a lot of us grumpier than the Grinch. And he only brightened up when he realized Christmas wasn’t just about all the stuff.

But the gauntlet is thrown: You’re already obligated to the family grab bag and the office Secret Santa. You’ve got a list of people to buy for, some of whom you don’t know very well. How to save money, time and sanity? We put three different folks to the test to glean some pointers.

Each gift-giver got the same restrictions: one hour, $100 and a list of three people to shop for (a high-school junior, a research assistant and a bride-to-be; see full profiles below). Then we sent our shoppers to three different places: one superstore, one neighborhood full of independent retailers and one website. Finally, we made the holidays come a bit early, so we could see whether our giftees were happy, or headed to the return line.