4:23 p.m.

A little bit of the North Pole came to The Orchard Town Center on Friday afternoon — as a train decked out with red-and-green decorations shuttled children around and Christmas songs set the soundtrack for ice skaters on a central rink.

A little boy stepped out of the path of the whistling train, pointed to the jolly conductor and said: “That’s such a cool job. I could do that when I grow up.”

The town center — an outdoor mall located on the northwest corner of I-25 and 144th Avenue in Westminster — is a magnet for families in east Boulder County.

An ice skate rental shop is carved out inside a towering Christmas tree, and families took a break to slide — and chop — across the “eco-friendly” rink.

The marketing team at the Orchard Town Center figured Santa likes “green” so the rink is made from a non-toxic, recyclable polymer compound. The rink doesn’t use water, refrigeration units or electricity. A lubricant is applied to cut down the friction created by a skate blade, and skaters glide about 10 to 15 percent slower than they would on real or refrigerated ice, which can translate to fewer icy hazards.

4:00 p.m.

Carole Hempill and Kathy Critchell of Arvada have been going out shopping to celebrate Black Friday for the past 25 years. And as they walked out of FlatIron Crossing today, the two women said this year's crowds don't measure up.

"It's definitely not as crowded," Critchell said. "I found everything I wanted... it's not a year when you're going to have to fight people to get what you want."

As he walked out of the mall with his friends, Frank Olazuba sounded a similar note. He said stirred himself from post-Thanksgiving fatigue "to help the economy."

"But it's dead in there. I did it last year, and then it was crowded," he said. "This is the year to come if you have money."

11:45 a.m.

A spokeswoman for the Twenty Ninth Street Mall says crowds are picking up, and stores report increased foot traffic -- a good sign for merchants looking to start the holiday shopping season with a bang.

10:20 a.m.

This morning, while bargain shoppers stood in silly lines to buy cheap merchandise at big-box stores across the Front Range, the parking lot at the Twin Peaks Mall was relatively barren.

Just before 9 a.m., about 50 cars were clustered by the mall's main entrance, while hundreds of empty parking spaces stretched out toward the street. Inside the mall, not all the stores were open yet, but there was at least one line -- but it wasn't for a sweet retail find.

The longest line at the Longmont shopping center was for the Country Buffet.

That wasn't true at 7 a.m., according to Russell Platt, who works at the Game Stop. His store opened early, and when they showed up to open the store, there was already a line.

"People were waiting to buy the Wii Fit, but it sold out in an hour," said Platt, who is just a seasonal employee, but who is crossing his fingers that he'll get hired full time after Christmas.

"It's been hard to find a job -- I've been looking forever," he said.

Still, the Game Stop looked to be doing more business than most of the stores at the mall, which was piping a jazzy elevator-style version of Sleigh Ride through the speakers at around 9:15 a.m. Santa's chair was also set up in front of a fake fireplace, but he wasn't in yet to take down kids' wishlists.

Across the street at Kohl's in Longmont, it was a different story.

The line to check out stretched from the front of the store, past the men's clothing section, past the shoes, past the kitchen items and the vacuum cleaners -- all the way to the underwear section.

The line, which took at least half and hour, and probably longer, to get through, was full of shoppers guarding their loot. Still, many of the people in line said they weren't changing their spending habits this year -- they always come out for the deals.

"We survived!" a man said to his young son as they picked up their goodies off of the check out counter. "We made it."

9:30 a.m. Friday:

Who hates mail-in rebates? Customers at Circuit City do, apparently.

A group of people buying 4GB mini flash drives at the store accosted a Circuit City customer service employee because the apparently popular item -- advertised at $9 -- actually rings up at more than $21.

"There's a $10 rebate," the clerk tried to explain.

"That's not fair," a customer replied. "It doesn't say that on the tag."

"It's on there really tiny," the clerk said. "We've been having a lot of problems with that today."

9:15 a.m. Friday:

Foot traffic along the Twenty Ninth Street Mall and other Boulder shopping areas has picked up, and most stores are starting to see a second wave of shoppers seeking great deals.

Heather Graham, manager of Lucy clothing in Boulder, said the store has been hopping.

"It's the most people I've had in the store at 8 a.m.," Graham said. "I'm pretty happy."

Lucy, like many shops at the mall, is offering bargain prices on some items to lure in customers. Graham said the discounts include 30-50 percent off sales items, and package pricing on high-end items.

Down the mall, Colorado Luggage is offering 25-percent discounts on some of its high-end luxury items.

Store manager Anne Taylor said shoppers should think seriously about jumping on deals today in general.

"Retailers are not going to be stocking as much this season," she said. "People have to realize that if they wait, they might not get what they want."

8:30 a.m. Friday:

The Twenty Ninth Street Mall sprung to life at 8 a.m. today, beginning the late-morning rush for Black Friday shoppers.

At the Apple store, about 30 customers waited outside for the doors to open. Black Friday is the only day of the year that the company typically offers discounts -- but don't call it a "sale."

"Apple refers to it as an event," store manager Andre Garcia said. "You won't see any 'sale' signs in here."

Event or sale, the discounts are attracting buyers this morning. iPod nanos are selling for $138-$188, while the MacBook computers have been slashed to $948 for the entry model.

Foot traffic at most other stores at the mall is moderate at 8:30 a.m., but there are clear efforts to woo customers inside.

At Eddie Bauer clothing, a Starbucks employee is walking around offering samples of "Christmas-blend" coffee and pastries.

At Macy's, a woman inside the west entrance is sitting on a pile of hundreds of bottles of Ocean Spray "Cranergy" drinks being given away. She has so many, in fact, that she's handing out entire cases of the drink to departing patrons.

Parking is not an issue at the mall, so far, with surface spots still available.

7:15 a.m. Friday:

Across Boulder, it seems electronics stores -- Best Buy, Ultimate Electronics, Circuit City and Radio Shack -- are still having a good morning and are seeing the most foot traffic.

But elsewhere, it's a different story now.

Macy's department store at the Twenty Ninth Street Mall saw a brief wave of early shoppers, but slowed to a tepid weekday pace by 7 a.m.

Merchandise is generally in good supply at the larger Boulder stores, but customers, it appears, aren't.

At Macy's , Bed, Bath and Beyond, REI, Office Depot and Target, the parking lots are mostly empty. Inside the stores, only a handful of customers are carrying carts filled with items.

Even Panera Bread, which opened for early bird customers at 6 a.m. at the Twenty Ninth Street Mall, has only seen a trickle of hungry shoppers in the last hour.

Some economists have predicted a slower Black Friday this year. If the lack of crowds hitting Boulder stores at about 7 a.m. are any indication, the economists may have been right. The day is still young, though, and the streets in Boulder are starting to pick up volume with the start of the morning commute.

6:30 a.m. Friday:

For many hundreds of people, Black Friday officially began at 5 a.m. when Wal-Mart stores across the Front Range gave anxious customers permission to start grabbing merchandise piled on the floor.

And grab, they did.

At the Wal-Mart Supercenter in Broomfield, across the street from the FlatIron Crossing Mall, about 300 people had already congregated in the aisles of the store to stake out big-screen TV's and $12 vacuum cleaners.

The customers weren’t allowed to touch the merchandise with the deepest discounts – MP3 players, flat-screen televisions, etc. --- until the clock struck 5 a.m.

When it did, a human wave swept through the checkout lanes. One man had four 50” televisions piled on a cart, and others had two or three carts.

The shoppers created an instant traffic jam inside the store, and some nerves began to fray.

“Move!” one particularly impatient man shouted in the electronics aisle. It didn’t help things.

Customers in the electronics department of the big-box store were at a standstill for more than 30 minutes at a time.

Dozens of shoppers were told by store associates to stand in line down lesser-traveled aisles to wait for the most popular item – a Nintendo Wii video game system. The system wasn’t discounted, at $249, but it remained the most sought after item in the store.

“They’re short on supply,” Louisville resident and early bird shopper Bonnie Tatum said while waiting for a Wii.

Marilyn Rollberg, of Boulder, waited in the same line with her children, Derek, 19, and Stephanie, 14.

“We’ve found a couple of fairly good deals,” the mother said.

The family, like many of the other shoppers at Wal-Mart Friday morning, had already made a stop at Kohl’s department store in Broomfield.

Meanwhile, back in Boulder, the Office Max store along 28th Street opened its doors at 6 a.m. to rousing applause.

Across the street, the Twenty Ninth Street Mall was mostly still asleep, except for Macy’s department store. Shoppers there were lining up for discounted clothing and accessories.

5:50 a.m. Friday:

At 4 a.m. outside Best Buy, the camping gear was put away in cars and people eagerly started filing into a line.

Some employees brandished paper vouchers for some of the big-ticket items and went through the line that now almost filled the south side of the building.

As it neared 5, some late-comers tried to cut in line, but a few of the all-nighters wouldn’t have it, and had a Best Buy employee give the newbies a stern “go to the end of the line” response.

After 5 hit and the doors opened, a few people elbowed their way through the aisles. But the mad rush to get other sale items resulted in another line – a 45-minute wait to purchase some of the big-ticket items, computers, TVs and the like.

By about 20 ‘til 6 that line was more than 100 people in length and snaked through aisles on one half of the store.

Sue Klahr, who had sat outside Best Buy since about 11 p.m. Thursday had her laptop voucher in hand and waited to check out, so she could do additional shopping at three other stores.

So was her first time camping out worth it?

She thought so, plus it was fun, she added.

“There’s a camaraderie you build when it’s 25 degrees out,” she said.

3:27 a.m. Friday:

The line quickly grew to 75 people, the vast majority of whom just swarmed a van carrying 180 Energy Drinks.

As the word spreads through the line that Best Buy won’t be handing out vouchers until 4:30 a.m., I hear a few folks make comments to the extent of: I’ll be upset if I don’t get that laptop. I’ve stayed out here all night.

Apparently the scene on the inside is a good bit of madness. I’ve witnessed the craziness of the Wal-Mart 5 a.m. shrink-wrap cutting (at the 24-hour Wal-Marts, the big-ticket items are wrapped in plastic and unveiled at the stroke of five to groups of strangers swarming the items). I’ll be curious to see whether the friendships and acquaintances made over the past couple hours will disappear when everyone gets in the store.

The tents are starting to come down, but good amount of people in the middle of the line still look like inch worms.

A line buddy leans over to tell me another FYI: the employees are going to be surly and customer service could be lacking.

2:43 a.m. Friday:

I expected Boulder’s first Best Buy might garner a pretty big Black Friday camping crowd. The Boulder residents who traveled to Longmont or Broomfield in the past could stay in town.

However, I think the newness of this Best Buy -- it opened only two weeks ago -- perhaps is helping to make it a good Black Friday secret (one that I’m kind of spilling ... but it’s a slight spill considering the timing and reach of this blog).

Some Best Buy employees have arrived. One of the employees walks up Canyon, past a group of campers and gives a cheery and genuine, “Good morning.”

One forgets that the employee’s statement is accurate.

Separately, about a half hour ago, camper Sue Klahr, 47, (who earlier joked that she hasn’t “sat in line since I was a kid” for concert ticket), came back from a quick trip to IHOP to surprise her line neighbors with a box of hot chocolates.

The heart- and belly-warming action was unexpected, but nice to see.

1:44 a.m. Friday:

So the tiredness starts to set in at about 1 a.m. It’s probably because so many people are asleep now.

But there’s too much amusing and thought-provoking chatter that’s interrupting the quiet.

On the latter end, first-place-holder Balmukund Adhikari sauntered to the middle of the line (that’s a couple dozen people long now) and struck up a conversation that quickly turned to the economy.

Last year, the deals were better, Adhikari and a few others agree, but with the cost of materials going up and profits sinking, Best Buy and others can ill-afford giving away these items, Adhikari said.

“These guys, they are not here for charity,” he said.

I’m a bit surprised that there are not more people out here at this point in time, but I have a feeling things will start to pick up just before 3 a.m., when the Best Buy employees start to hand out the vouchers for the limited number of big-ticket items.

After 3, people can take their vouchers, leave and come back before 11 a.m., if they wish.

Or they can stay in line until the doors open at 5 a.m., and the mad rush begins for other sale items. Then, I’ve heard, people wait in line for another hour to check out.

I suppose after waiting for dozens of hours in the cold that another 60 minutes isn’t too shabby.

By the way, to give you an answer to a question I’ve been getting a lot ... I most likely will make my first-ever Black Friday door-buster purchase this year. Since I’m already in line, I think I’ll grab a digital camera for $60.

As I prepare to send this and put a timestamp on this, I overhear the statement, “Oh my gosh, it’s only 1:43.”

Time doesn’t seem to be flying anymore.

1:26 a.m. Friday:

I’m learning from some of the Black Friday camp-out veterans that there are some unwritten rules that come along with this.

The biggie: No cutting in line.

I’ve seen how touchy people get when someone even thinks about sneaking in front of them at coffee shops, I can only imagine how surly people will get here.

I have heard of line-cutters being the cause of Black Friday fist-fights.

The second unwritten rule: An inanimate object cannot hold your space for more than a short period of time.

It’s one thing to let your line neighbors know you’re running to grab some coffee, or grabbing an additional layer of clothes from home, but it’s another to put a chair down at 8 p.m. and not return for hours.

One such chair is to my right, behind me a couple spots in line. I don’t think its owner will be welcomed by the folks “behind him” who have been waiting all night.

12:06 a.m. Friday:

Everyone seems to be cocooned in their sleeping bags.

I’m definitely thankful for mine and also thankful for the purchase of the 1.1-quart Thermos to end all Thermoses. The sips of coffee help to get one through a cold night.

There’s a trio of folks in line behind me waiting on a friend to bring Yahtzee or Uno. If I’m able to make a trip home, I’ll bring one or both for a little amusement.

When I asked 25-year-old camper Robby Pruett the question I’ve asked many people tonight (Why do you do this?), he responded with a simple: “I think it’s all about making a memory.”

And what about the people who say camping out all night is a crazy or odd thing to do?

“The fact that people do say you’re crazy makes it just that more fun,” Pruett said, laughing.

He and his two friends brought out two twin mattresses here and set them up like a couch. A lot of people have camping chairs and some people pitched tents to help them get through the night.

A few folks are sleeping here, but most are wide awake – thanks to adrenaline, caffeine, or conversation.

It’s 30 degrees now and I can see my breath. I’m not looking forward to having to get out of the half-cocoon to do anything.

This definitely is an interesting social experiment.

I'm making a quick amendment to this posting to talk about the passers-by. There have been two instances where people have drove by and shouted "What's going on?" or "I love Christmas!" respectively. The latter was pretty amusing.

Earlier in the evening, a police officer stopped by because the interior alarm in Best Buy was going off. He chided my line neighbors for leaning up against the garage door here (something they didn't do). The officer and his British accent then became a source for one-line jokes throughout the evening.

After that was a heavily intoxicated man whose comments I can't print.

And finally, we had a man ride up on a bicycle to inquire about why people were waiting in line and subsequently calling everyone Jehovah's Witnesses.

11 p.m. Thursday: Most of the people here pass the time through conversation.

The chatter sometimes nips the topic of “what are you gonna buy?” But the topics of conversation range from the escapades of a recent vacation, how Thanksgiving dinner went, the fate of theirs and others’ love lives, and so on.

Other people are passing the time by reading a thick fantasy novel, hitting a tennis ball against the building with a racket, and creating a make-shift football field out of a strip of asphalt.

It’s getting pretty chilly out here, and the people seem to be getting more optimistic that it won’t snow.

Being alone in line, you are pretty much forced to make friends here. The group of four 20-something guys to the left of me (i.e. in front of me in line), have become good conversation buddies, and a source of entertainment (they’ve got jokes).

One of the guys, Thomas Bieker, talks about how the Black Friday campout has grown into a tradition for his friends as him. And it seems, he says, that each year that passes, it becomes less about the deals and more about the camaraderie, conversations and memories.

People camp out for concert tickets and for new game consoles, “so why not?” Bieker said.

“It’s definitely something that everyone should experience once,” he told me, and quickly followed up with a quip about going to socialize.

“Public socialization, it’s a beautiful thing, but it’s disappearing,” he said.

9:21 p.m. Thursday: And so the Black Friday lines begin. The streets of Boulder are fairly tame and the majority of store-fronts are dark on Thanksgiving evening. However, at this point in time, about 30 people have set up camp in front of Boulder's new Best Buy.

They're here for the Black Friday deals. Best Buy won't open until 5 a.m., but these folks do not want to miss out on the early bird specials. (Best Buy and other retailers will have a limited amount of "door-busting" items such as the new Guitar Hero for $80, a desktop computer for $300 and a laptop for $379.)

Waiting in line or camping overnight is a tradition for some of these people in line. They put aside money all year, plan out their purchases weeks in advance by perusing the advertisement fliers leaked to Web sites like bfads.net, and then brave the cold and eventual sleep-deprivation.

As a business reporter for the Camera, I’ve worked during the early morning hours of the day after Thanksgiving to cover Black Friday – one of the busiest shopping days of the year.

During the past couple years, I’ve talked with a few of the thousands of folks in Boulder County who have decided to be line jockeys from Thursday evening to pre-dawn Friday. I’ve heard stories about how they passed the time, how they made the night a family affair, how they grilled up food and played board games and had some deep – and not-so-deep conversations.

This year I wanted to experience this and find out what makes these campers tick, why they choose to do something that others often call “crazy.”

Throughout the night, I’ll post updates to help give Camera readers a bit of insight into the people who make up the Black Friday lines, and what happens when complete strangers make the Best Buy sidewalk their home for the night.