Paula Kyriakos, left, Lawrence, hands Nola Levings, 6, right, Lawrence, her Christmas gifts Tuesday at Weaver’s Department Store, 901 Mass. Levings’ gifts were for her grandfather and she was picking them up from Kyriakos, who was wrapping customers’ gifts with a couple of other employees at the downtown department store. In the background at top left are gift wrappers Megan Ballock, Eudora, and Samantha Otte, Lawrence.

In 45 minutes, Leon Hiatt was hoping to check his mom, dad, grandparents, sister and nephew off his shopping list.

Doing some last-minute shopping at its finest, Hiatt was shuttling from store to store along Iowa Street on Tuesday afternoon. He hit World Market, TJ Maxx and then Bed, Bath & Beyond looking for the quick stuff: KU clothing, snack foods and movies.

Hiatt, a 22-year-old college student at Fort Lewis College in Colorado, just arrived home for the holidays and learned his family was doing Christmas early this year.

“Next year, I’m going to give myself three days instead,” Hiatt said.

If it seems like people have more shopping to do later this season, it’s because they do. According to a National Retail Federation survey, the five fewer days between Thanksgiving and Christmas this year meant the holidays sneaked up on more people.

As of the second week in December, people had completed an average of 47.1 percent of their holiday shopping. And 20.7 percent of men hadn’t even started, according to the federation’s 2008 Holiday Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey.

To accommodate those shoppers, stores are offering longer hours, extra employees to stock shelves, and more sales and promotions, the National Retail Federation said.

Back out on Iowa Street — home to a bulk of Lawrence’s national chain stores — parking lots were full and stores were buzzing.

Coming out of Kohl’s Department Store, Dick Hicks of Lenexa was still on the hunt for a tennis bracelet for his wife, who has an endless desire for jewelry, he said. Hicks admitted to being a traditional last-minute shopper.

“I just never decide what I want to get until it’s close to the end,” Hicks said.

Many coming in and out of Tuesday’s dismal weather were looking for stocking stuffers or had only an item or two to pick up.

Mickie Gillispie, who had started Christmas shopping this summer, was looking for something “cozy and relaxing” for her sister-in-law. While she hadn’t found it in Kohl’s, she had uncovered something for herself.

She planned to continue the search at Sears and, when her list was finished, go home to bake cookies.