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Shané Winner browses a shoe store with friends as "Oh Holy Night", sung in Josh Groban's mellow, operatic voice, floats around a huge Christmas tree decorated in lighted red and gold baubles while Frank Sinatra serenades a few people in the food court at West Mall.
She pauses over a pair of fire-engine red pumps, snapping a couple of shots with her camera phone, thinking she'll add them to her Christmas list. But not now.
Maybe later.
As teenagers go, 11 days before Christmas is a ton of time. Who cares if the "rents" call it procrastinating? The teen crew is doing it last minute. Cuz that's how they do.
Outside, reindeer topiaries frolic around an escalator lit with rising blue lights.
Parallel rows of red-sequined Christmas trees run straight down the hallway around elaborately decorated booths selling endless varieties of gifts.
A mysterious aroma of spice fills the air while glowing snowflakes rotate on the floor.
Every year, malls and stores are relatively deserted from about late November through mid-December.
The few early shoppers are those who organized their lists when everyone else was shopping for carnival costumes, or those who dread elbowing their way through thick crowds to fight for that last roll of Rudolph wrapping paper.
Their shopping experience is calm, leisurely.
Right.
That's sooo uncool for teenagers like Shané.
Wait for the eve of Christmas Eve they say.
Then hit four malls in two days to pick up a thousand gifts.
Normel.
Fifteen-year-old Shané is just checking out the scene today.
Looking for a pair of shoes for herself but keeping an eye out for gift ideas for family and friends.
The plan is to play it by ear.
Browse all the stores and make a mental note of anything interesting.
The real shopping will start when the chaos is in full swing later this week.
Some might say that showing up to the mall during the last week before Christmas with no plan is a recipe for disaster.
"There's still plenty time," she says.
Besides, she hasn't even gotten her allowance yet.
Strolling past several stores, Daniela Calderon, Kathrine Aboud, and Annamarie Sabga-Aboud, schoolmates from the International School of Port of Spain, talk and laugh while taking in the Christmas goodies.
Daniela's plan is more precise than Shané's. She's going to make a list, checking off each friend, sibling, and parent as she goes.
"It's easier to keep it organized."
As for when she's planning to start the whole process?
"Not yet. Definitely before Christmas Eve, though."
Although she's made no list, Annamarie knows precisely what she's getting for her mom, dad, and siblings.
She's particularly excited about shopping for her sister, who dreams of marrying a pop star.
"My sister's a huge Justin Bieber fan," she says, "So I'm going to get her everything JB."
Her cousin Kathrine, on the other hand, has an idea of what she's getting for everyone except her sister.
"We don't buy Christmas gifts, we get each other jokey gifts." After a conversation about Dr. Seuss, she got her sister the Cat in the Hat collection and a big onesy as birthday presents.
She's stumped when it comes to Christmas, though.
"Maybe a framed picture of myself?"
She'll be back later this week to figure it out, as will almost everyone else in those tiny two days before Christmas.
That's when the stores will be packed, merchandise on the floor and lines out the door.
Teens who are liming today will storm every shopping mall, list in hand, or no list at all, panic in their hearts and to be sure, they'll enjoy every minute of it.
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