No regrets as shoppers cut holiday gift lists

By Michele Gershberg

NEW YORK (Reuters) - In-laws, second cousins once removed and friends who don't respond to e-mails are all off the gift list this year.

Americans turned out in force this weekend to shop for Black Friday deals, some of them purchasing clothes or electronics for themselves after months of scrimping.

Many said they had shortened their holiday gift lists this year out of necessity, but had few regrets doing so because of a weak economy. Others said it was a good time to take stock of who should get a present and why they deserved one.

Ayanna Brown, who lost her job as a bookkeeper at a legal firm last year, is cutting "anybody old enough to get a job" from her Christmas gift list.

"Around Christmas you have to splurge on the kids, so the grown-ups understand," she said while shopping at a Brooklyn mall.

Lillian Shine, an administrator at a nonprofit organization in Oakland, Calif., removed co-workers and extended family from her shopping plans and said she would make her own candy to hand out to other loved ones.

She is sure her colleagues won't feel slighted as they await a city budget decision.

"We're trying to brace ourselves for what may come" she said. "We may have our funding cut."