North Dakotans got up early to look for bargains on the day after Christmas, filling their shopping carts with Christmas ornaments, blankets and wrapping paper.

Steve Quintus, of Killdeer, was in Bismarck visiting relatives for the holidays. He filled his truck with several bags of bargains from Target.

"There's some good bargains," said Quintus, who mainly bought Christmas ornaments. "I'm already getting ready for next year."

Walter Schott, of Mandan, said he had his eye on "outdoor ornament angels" at Target but didn't want to pay the full retail price. He got a pair of the lighted lawn decorations at 50 percent off on Wednesday.

"I got the last two," said Schott, whose cart also was bristling with rolls of wrapping paper.

Dave Lyon, an assistant manager at Target in Bismarck, said the store opened at 7 a.m. It was full of shoppers three hours later.

"Traffic has been pretty steady," Lyon said. "I think it's going to be steady all day."

Extra employees were on the clock, and nearly all the store's check-out lanes were open and full of customers.

"We treat this day just like the day after Thanksgiving," Lyon said.

The store usually has about 5,000 shoppers on a normal day, he said, and predicted: "We'll bump over that today."

In Fargo, West Acres Mall Manager Rusty Papachek said the mall was open at 8 a.m. Wednesday, though some department stores opened earlier.

Papachek said he expected traffic to pick up around noon "once these kids roll out of bed and come to the mall to cash in their (gift) cards."

The mall has about 125 stores and holiday sales appear to be up, Papachek said

"We don't have the final sales figures but just talking to the stores, we're seeing a 4 to 5 percent increase over last year," he said. "For 2007, it will be a record year. The economy is good, the ag economy is very good and we're seeing a lot more Canadians with their dollar strengthening."

Dawn Clooten, of Bismarck, had her eye on gift bags at the Kohl's department store in Bismarck. She arrived in the first wave of shoppers, shortly after the store opened at 6 a.m.

"We're the crazy ones," Clooten said.

"There's some gift bags that light up and some that sing Christmas songs," she said. "It's new this year, so I figured I'd get some for next year."

Susie Schneibel, of Bismarck, said she was having trouble sleeping, and when she awoke at 4:30 a.m. Wednesday, "I thought, I'm just going to go shopping a little bit."

Schneibel was looking to buy next year's Christmas decorations at a discount.

Shirley Vilhauer, of Bismarck, said she spent less than $25 on ski pants for her grandson and a baby gift for her niece's young son.

"I was the first one in the door, so it was nice," she said.

Bismarck JCPenney store manager Gary Hanson said people were lined up outside when the store opened at 6 a.m., to catch sales, especially on Christmas ornaments, outerwear and blankets.

"Things are really good this morning," Hanson said.

"They started off buying really quick. We really don't anticipate a lot of returns until Saturday, because a lot of folks had to go back to work today," he said.

Unlike other parts of the country, Hanson said, his store is seeing strong holiday sales.

"We had about a 4.5 gain for the holiday season. I don't think you're going to see that nationally," Hanson said. "

"It's been overall, a really good Christmas," he said.

The president of the North Dakota Retailers Association, Mike Rud, said earlier that retail sales could jump more than 4 percent from last year. He said North Dakota has been insulated from the impact of high energy costs and weather that have hit other parts of the country.

(AP reporter Dale Wetzel contributed from Bismarck.)