Here's the secret to actually getting a park whilst Christmas shopping

It's meant to be 'the most wonderful time of the year' but finding a park whilst Christmas shopping is far from wonderful.

Scoring a spot after driving around in circles for 20 minutes can feel like a bloody Christmas miracle! 

BUT that's where we're going to step in, to make the parking meres a little less stressful. 

It turns out there are actually scientifically-backed strategies to guarantee yourself a spot.

So here are what these experts claim to do to ensure you aren't having a mental break down over parking: 

- Shoppers spent an average of three hours doing their Christmas shopping — so in an area with 30 parked cars, one should leave every six minutes. So if we're waiting for longer than 6 minutes, you need to try a different level/section of the parking.

- Drive to the furthest corner from the shopping centre’s entrance. Failing that, methodically drive through the parking lot row by row, or use the “skip a few” approach, which involves driving down the first aisle closest to the entrance followed by the third, sixth and 11th aisle, which means you’ll avoid being stuck behind the same line of drivers.

- Forget about finding the “perfect” spot and instead take the first available one - even if you have to walk a good 5 minutes to get to the mall entrance.

 So that's the 'experts' advice but the team at ZM have a few handy hints from years of Christmas parking experience:

- Lucy: "Be ruthless and be ready to jump on any available spot at any moment."

- Klaudia: "Put your window down and talk to those walking in the car park to see if they're leaving. If they are, follow them to their park."

- Zoe: "Just walk there if you can, or Uber if it's too far."

- Trin: "Get to the mall before it actually opens, there is usually heaps of parks if you arrive 15 minutes before opening."

- Gary: "For the shops that are opened until midnight, go there from 10pm, it's always dead then." 

- Jordyn: "As soon as you see someones reverse lights turn on, indicate so that no other cars try to steal the spot."

- Ellie: "Just stay at home."