While the Christmas season may start up in earnest for many on Black Friday, at BARN Inc., donors start pitching in well before the first Thanksgiving turkey is even set up on a plate.

The Bristow transitional shelter for abused women each year hosts present drives for the families staying at the one-story complex next to Linton Hall School. Members of the community generally pick out a family and buy whatever is on the each person's wish list, whether it's a child's toy, a mother's clothes or anything in between.

With the economy still slumping, the staff at BARN is setting what executive director Colin Davis calls "realistic" expectations for family members.

"We're not expecting as much of a financial commitment due to the economy," said Davis.

Unlike prior years, those wishing to donate to BARN are not being asked to "adopt" an entire family and max-out wish-list items for each member. Instead, they can pick the description of a single person -- actual identities of the recipients are always kept anonymous -- or a single item mentioned on someone's wish list and turn that in instead.

However, Davis added, "if somebody wants to sponsor an entire family, they can."

He explained that the goal for BARN is for every item on every person's wish list actually come in from donors. The staffers, who are also updating a new inventory system to reduce duplicative donations, asked the residents this year to drop the value of their wish lists this year to $75-$100 for mothers, $150 to children with the understand that "it's a wish list. Not everything on the wish list is going to come true," said Davis.

Those numbers are down from the $175-$200 range in previous years.

Traditional Christmas presents and care packages young mothers need to take care of infants and children are typical items dropped off each year at BARN. Davis mentioned though that gift cards, especially those at big box stores and gas stations, are extremely useful as well given that the mothers at BARN, all of whom are in either their 20s or early 30s, generally can use help in keeping down their costs of living.

For example, Davis said it's not uncommon for a resident at BARN to be raising three children on a salary around $10 an hour with possible deductions in child care assistance if she makes more money than that.

"Can she really afford child care expenses?" asked Davis. 'That's a mortgage payment."

Christmas crunch

Though the BARN staff, which is short one member this year according to Davis, expects donors to be more frugal, the community still showed up in strong numbers to BARN's second-hand store Nov. 20 morning for the annual Christmas sale. The proceeds from that go to fund BARN itself.

People began lining up as early as the pre-dawn hours despite doors not opening until 8 a.m. A mixture of volunteers and staffers alike assisted customers in their Christmas shopping for items ranging from Christmas CDs to ball gowns.

"So am I able to talk down some things?" a young woman with blond hair and a white zip-up hoodie asked Davis as she pulled up to the make-shift cash register. Stationed at two tables near the front of the former dairy barn, the register turned out to be Davis's ability to string price tags together in his head for the amount of items being placed in front of him.

"I'm going to walk outside and get a box," another woman told Davis as she finished paying for her items.

In fact, virtually all of the shoppers, expect for the occasional father or child, appeared to be women, at least during the last hour or so of operation. Even at 11:50, 10 minutes before the scheduled close, a line four customers deep awaited Davis while others continued shopping.

At 11:54, volunteers still shuffled through hangers at the women's clothing section, rattling the while "small" and "medium" identification circles hanging as dividers on each rack.

"Buy one get one free" became the new selling point.

Nine minutes later, a group of three more women walked up the gravel way, looked at the the Christmas tree bases to their left in front of the entrance door as they walked out from the bright, clear day and into the barn to begin shopping.

All the while, on an old, black little cassette radio inside the barn to the left of the door, the faint sounds of Little Drummer Boy and other holiday tunes came out just loud enough to be heard but not too loud to make a noticeable impression.

"Living in a shelter with your mom can be pretty stressful and sometimes saddening," Davis had said days earlier, "but if BARN can do something to make that child's life a little bit happier and a little bit brighter, we want to do that."