Hard-Core Shoppers Find Happiness at the Nearest Mall

If you like crowds, Orange County’s malls were the place to be Friday.

On Friday, shoppers began their monthlong ritual of holiday bargain hunting.

The day after Thanksgiving is traditionally the busiest shopping day of the year. And once inside the stores, eager shoppers weren’t disappointed. “This place is wild,” said one early customer as she battled elbow-to-elbow shoppers in the Nordstrom shoe department at South Coast Plaza.

As usual, South Coast’s “Santasfaction”--sort of a Santa’s Village in the Costa Mesa mall--was packed with tiny visitors. A polar bear piloting a glider and a huge hot-air balloon greeted tots and their parents as they waited in snaking lines for their chance to visit Santa.

Across South Coast’s courtyard, customers stood in lines up to 10-deep to nudge inside the high-tech new Disney Store and ogle the yellow Styrofoam fireplace hung with stockings and holiday gifts ranging from a Mickey Mouse spatula to Disney sunglasses.

Although some shoppers said crowds seemed sparser than in past years, there was no shortage of holiday spirit.

“It’s fun! It really gets you in the mood,” said Crissi Vallance of Huntington Beach. Within five minutes of the opening of Bullock’s at South Coast Plaza, Vallance had plunked down $80 for two Cuisinarts and was well on her way to buying more items.

Meanwhile, at Fashion Island in Newport Beach, holiday bargain hunters could ride a mini-train that whistled and chugged between Robinson’s and Bullock’s Wilshire. A 110-foot flocked fir outside Neiman Marcus sparkled with blinking lights and gigantic red, green and blue ornaments.

Colored lights and garlands decked the halls at Brea Mall, with its snow-covered house where children can visit Santa. “People got out (to the mall) a little later, but it’s been building ever since,” said a mall spokesman. “We’re busy, and it will probably be as good as last year.”

The day began with less of a bang at MainPlace/Santa Ana. But by noon, the new mall was filled with the sound of ringing cash registers, and shoppers’ cars had filled up to 95% of the mall’s 5,200 parking spaces, said David Longine, general manager. “We started off a little bit slower than we liked, but we still feel it will be a real good season for us.”

One happy holiday shopper was Christine Wyder of Rowland Heights, who left MainPlace early toting bagloads of boots, a purse, cosmetics and perfume--with a total tab of more than $300--”All just for me! I deserve it!”

Even so, Wyder said, she will spend less overall because her husband just bought her a 928S Porsche. That will triple “as my Christmas, anniversary and birthday gifts.”

For the Wyder family, Christmas this year “will definitely be richer--in the economic sense,” Wyder said. “But that’s not really what Christmas is all about.”