If you can stand the thought of shopping for next year's holidays, now is the time to score deep discounts on Christmas and Hanukkah items.

Between now and mid-January, prices on everything from artificial Christmas trees to Hanukkah gelt will be marked down drastically. Right now, most items are 50 percent to 60 percent off. But as the days go by, the discounts will get deeper -- as high as 90 percent, in some cases.

I know some shoppers who haunt the aisles of Target and the drug stores just waiting for those 90 percent off signs to go up.

Here are a couple of hints to get the most bang for your clearance buck:

Teri Boggess, former N&O sports copy editor, writes:

Losing weight will get me a tax deduction.

Well, not directly, but close enough.

Shrinking my waistline has resulted in many of my clothes being simply too large.

I had to face that reality when I was showing a visiting cousin downtown Raleigh and found myself walking along the Fayetteville Street sidewalk trying to look inconspicuous while holding up my very favorite cargo pants.

I have since borrowed back my favorite belt from my husband's closet. A long time has passed since that belt fit, and now it does - second notch, too.

So, as the season changes, I'm looking at my fall and winter clothes. Some local charities will be getting donations of the garments that can't be altered.

Even an unworn pair of casual shoes will go into the box. I had really been looking forward to wearing them this fall, but now they're just too big.

Now, I have a bit of a shopping quandary.

The other day, I stood in front of a sales rack marked down a hard-to-resist 70 percent and thought about next summer and needing new shorts.

And then I thought about not having a paycheck at the moment. So, I passed on the sale.

I'll buy only the clothes that I must have for whatever job I find in my post-newspaper life.

And next year, I'll spend some of my tax refund on shorts for summer.

A size or two smaller, of course.