Holiday Crowds : Feeling Mobbed? You’re Not Alone

Mikie Jaeckels knows something about nice people turning ugly.

A housewares saleswoman at the Broadway at Huntington Center, she sees it every year around this time. It starts with the big sales the two days after Thanksgiving and doesn’t end until sometime after Christmas.

“Just come back the 24th,” she said of Christmas Eve. “We have to kick people out of the store. It can get to be a little crazy.”

Crazy may be just one word for it. At shopping centers and malls across Orange County on Friday, it looked as if they were giving the stuff away. By 10 a.m., the parking lots at South Coast Plaza, Fashion Island and Westminster Mall were filled to near capacity, and things weren’t much better anywhere else.

It seemed crowded everywhere. Attendance was reported at near-summer levels at Disneyland and Knott’s Berry Farm. And lots of people went to the shore on a day when temperatures in some Orange County places reached into the low 70s.

Still, most people who ventured out seemed to find their way to one store or another. But while all this is good news for merchants, the Christmas rush can be one long headache for shoppers and such salespeople as Jaeckels. Shopping, can bring out the absolute worst in people.

“People start getting a little rude the day before Christmas,” said Djive Mihaic, manager of the Broadway’s Lancome cosmetics department at Huntington Center. “Everybody has been really nice today, but it gets worse as time goes on.”

What you have to understand, Mihaic added, is that deep down, most of these people are genuinely very nice. Really , they are.

But there is that traffic to contend with and the mobs, and just try finding a place to park that’s not a half-mile from the mall entrance. Not to mention all those people elbowing ahead of you once you get inside.

“I get the idea that everybody has a very short fuse today,” said Tami Carnes of Cypress, who packed up her three children and husband, Don, for a day at Westminster Mall. “We really came to get the kids’ Christmas pictures taken. We’ve already got a lot of Christmas shopping done so we wouldn’t have to fight the crowds.”

“It’s kind of strange out there,” her husband added, looking over the crowds a bit warily. “It’s like everyone is psyching themselves up for the rush.”

Riverside resident Sandra Berry said she ventured to Westminster to catch some early shopping and “for the excitement.” But after less than three hours, she was ready to leave.

“It’s a little crowded, and I don’t think I can take much more of this excitement,” she said.

And then there are the optimists, such as Eric Bondus of La Mirada, who take it all in stride and snort at the notion that the crowds are anything to worry about.

“The only problem was finding a place to park,” said Bondus, caring for his 7-month-old son, Christopher, while his wife went on other errands at the Westminster Mall. “I thought it would be hell in here, but it’s laughable. I’ve already done half my Christmas shopping. That’s how easy it has been.”

But not everyone was convinced it would be so easy.

“I always avoid the malls,” said Whittier resident Rose Fredrickson, who spent the morning in Laguna Beach with friend, Marlane Stiver, and Stiver’s mother and aunt. Fredrickson said the foursome planned an outing to South Coast Plaza “to see how the rich people shop” but warned her companions that the trip would be abruptly canceled if they didn’t immediately find a parking space.

Others, such as Camille Gershenovitz and Janine Walker, spent the day window shopping along Coast Highway in Laguna Beach.

“We thought it would be kind of crazy with all the parking hassles and waiting in line for 45 minutes just to buy something,” Gershenovitz said.

“We passed right by the malls” without stopping, added Lois Wightman of Huntington Beach, who was in the Laguna Beach shopping district along Forest Avenue. “I imagine they were a mess today. We thought we’d make a nice, leisurely day of it down here. How can you get in the mood in this weather?”

About 25,000 people took advantage of the warm day to visit Huntington Beach, said John Barth, Huntington Beach marine safety officer.

“We had a real nice day here but a relatively small crowd on the beach. Most of the people who visited walked and strolled along the pier,” he said.

Beach conditions were on the chilly side, with air temperatures about 67 degrees. The water temperature was a nippy 62, Barth said. Others out for the day went to Orange County’s best-known amusement parks.

“It looks pretty busy out there,” said Disneyland spokeswoman LuAnne Cappiello. “I guess not everyone is out shopping today.”

Knott’s spokesman Stuart Zanville said that although some people might have been in the park to avoid shopping, attendance at Knott’s Christmas Crafts Festival was higher than last year.

“It’s not a record day, but it’s comparable to a summer weekday,” Zanville said.

Times staff writers Mariann Hansen and David Reyes contributed to this story.