T.M.
I LOVE going out for Black Friday. However, I do not go out the night of Thanksgiving...that is when the diehards seem to go. I get up super early on Friday morning...by that time the folks that have been shopping all night are tired and going home. It is way less chaos that way and way less crowds. I went to about 10 stores yesterday and there was only 1 that I thought was way too crowded.
I don't get much "me" time so I look at this as a fun activity for me to do. I do buy Christmas gifts, but I also buy stuff that we need for the house. For instance I bought a new office chair yesterday because the arm on the one we have broke a while back. I bought a $50 Chistmas centerpiece at Michaels for about $14 given the sale. I bought bras for me since I have some that are literally falling apart. I went to Once Upon a Child and bought some jeans/pants for my son since everything in the store was 40% off from 8-10 a.m.
I was home by 10 a.m. It was fun for me. If it wasn't fun, then I would stop doing it.
I don't usually buy big ticket items on Black Friday...we don't need any TVs :) I also refuse to camp out at Best Buy for a week before a sale...that doesn't make sense to me.