SIOUX CITY -- With Halloween barely ended, Almeda Strachan is already about halfway done with her Christmas shopping.

The Moville, Iowa, woman needs plenty of time to buy just the right gifts for her family, which includes six children, their spouses, eight grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.

"I usually start in October,'' Strachan said Thursday as she leaned against a half-full shopping cart at the Younkers department store at Southern Hills Mall. "That way, if the weather gets bad I've already got quite a lot of my shopping done.''

Christmas shopping weeks before Thanksgiving is the trend this year, according to the National Retail Federation, which reports about 40 percent of U.S. shoppers have already started their gift buying.

To try to seize that momentum, many retailers are rolling out major promotions nearly a month before Nov. 27, the day after Thanksgiving. The traditional kickoff of the holiday shopping spree is dubbed Black Friday because it often is the day a surge of buying helps stores break into profitability, or the black, for the year.

On Halloween Eve, Sears launched its "Black Friday Now'' promotion, a series of weekly discounts through Thanksgiving. Last weekend, shoppers flocked to the Sears at Southern Hills Mall for such bargains as an $80 diamond ring and 50 percent off a 302-piece Craftsman tool set.

Local Sears manager Brad Harper said the first weekend of the promotion exceeded expectations.

"We had double-digit increases, which was awesome,'' he said.

Sears' sister store, Kmart, on Friday kicked off its early-bird shopping promotion, dubbed "Better than Black Friday.'' The retailer offered doorbusters that included big savings on athletic shoes, a child's laptop and holiday decorations.

Last week, big box discounter Wal-Mart, which has several stores in Siouxland, began slashing prices on toys and holiday staples. On Friday, Verizon Wireless, the region's largest mobile carrier, rolled out the Droid, a smart phone that runs on Google's Android software.

Wary of the economic downturn, some retailers are looking to give consumers more time to pay for their holiday gifts. Sears and Kmart are among the stores heavily promoting their layaway service.

Strachan said a promotion at J.C. Penney saved her 20 percent on the more than $70 worth of gifts and other items she bought at the department store Thursday.

Andrea McAdams, manager of Younkers at Southern Hills Mall, said savvy consumers are "watching for sales, looking for bargains and taking advantage of the savings early.''

Discounts generally are more plentiful early in the shopping season, she said.

"Once you get closer to Christmas, people are going to buy no matter what.''

Laura Bruggeman and her mother, Susan Steemken, who browsed Christmas decorations at Younkers last Thursday, said they prefer earlier shopping to the traditional Black Friday, known for hordes of shoppers who line up for discounts in the wee hours of the morning.

"It's too crowded,'' said Bruggeman, an Ashland City, Tenn., resident visiting her family in Sioux City this week.

"It has to be a good bargain to get me out there,'' Steemken said.

Not everyone is thrilled with stores quickly replacing Halloween costumes and jack-o-lanterns with evergreen and tinsel.

"I definitely think they promote Christmas way too early,'' said Janet Hartman of Stanton, Neb. "Let's do one holiday at a time.''

Tracie Dvorak of Yankton, S.D., said Thanksgiving has become forgotten in the eyes of many retailers.

''Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday of the year,'' she said as she walked through Southern Halls Mall. "To come to the mall and see it all decorated for Christmas is disappointing.''