Young shoppers don’t have to depend so much on adults to check off their Christmas lists this year.

“As a grandmother who has received these gifts, I love them because I know that my grandson picked them out,” she said. “And the kids are so excited because they have something that they picked out themselves and their parents had nothing to do with it.”

With the help of Grandmothers of Alberta for a New Generation (GANG), a charity group supporting the Toronto-based Stephen Lewis Foundation, the mall cordons off a “top secret” section of the shopping area, where parents temporarily drop off their children with volunteer grandmas.

Parents register their children with the guardian grannies, who collect contact information and budget and gift recipient details, and then guide their young clients through the selection and purchase process before wrapping the gifts and contacting parents for pickup, GANG member Lorna Rogers said.

Available items in past years have run the gamut from sports equipment and collectables to scarves, costume jewellery and china.

Many of the mall’s vendors stock the shelves for the Kids Christmas Shoppe, offering up their wares at marked-down prices ranging from $5 to $20 dollars, Reitan said, but the prices say nothing of the value.

“They are very generous with these kids,” Reitan said of the vendors. “I have seen the most amazing items in that shop that are way underpriced, like a beautiful china tea set — probably worth $50 — priced at $10 for a child.”

The mall also makes it easier for the kids by absorbing the GST, she added.

The Kids Christmas Shoppe runs on November 26 and 27 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.