The holiday shopping season kicked off much earlier this year, as several retailers began offering deals on Thanksgiving Day. As a result, things appeared calmer Friday morning, though there were scattered reports of fights and other problems. Many people complained about the early start and the mad rush for deals, but they went out shopping anyway.

Here’s how the start of the holiday shopping season played out:

Friday, 5 a.m.

Colder temperatures didn’t deter shoppers in upstate New York.

“We like to shop this time of night. We get in and out. We’re having a ball,” said Rosanne Scrom as she left the Target store in Clifton Park, N.Y., at 5 a.m. with her sister and their daughters. It was about 20 degrees.

Scrom said they spent about 20 minutes in the store buying “whatever we see on sale that people will like.”

“We’re spending more this year,” said her daughter, Tiffani, 21.

“We’re getting more bargains,” her mother added.

The store wasn’t jammed, and the Scroms said they had more time to mull purchases and not worry about people snatching items from their carts, something that has happened to Rosanne Scrom “lots of times” during previous Black Friday shopping excursions.

Friday, 5 a.m.

Curtis Akins, 51, drove about three hours from Tifton, Ga., to watch the annual Macy’s tree-lighting ceremony at Lenox Square mall in Atlanta on Thanksgiving. The store opened for shoppers at 8 p.m. on Thanksgiving, and the rest of the mall opened at midnight.

By 5 a.m. Friday, he was sitting on a bench — looking slightly exhausted — inside another mall as his wife shopped for deals. The North Point Mall in Atlanta’s northern suburbs had the feel of an airport terminal in the pre-dawn hours, with some store gates open, others closed and many shoppers slowly shuffling along, bleary-eyed.

Akins said he wasn’t keen on Black Friday starting earlier and earlier.

“I think it’s going to end because it’s taking away from the traditional Thanksgiving,” he said.

Friday, 8:15 a.m.

Dana and Estevan Branscum of Chicago were stopping by a Target in the Chicago suburb of Niles to look for “little things” like movies.

“I never shop for big ticket items on Black Friday because I know I won’t get them,” said Dana Branscum, a 27-year-old grocery store manager.

The Friday morning visit was her second time at the store in less than 10 hours.

She and her mom headed out Thursday evening to do a full circuit of shopping: Kohl’s, Target, J.C. Penney and Michael’s craft store. She said it was much busier Thursday night than Friday morning, but it also seemed more civilized than usual.

“I’ve been doing Black Friday for a couple years. It seemed very organized,” she said.

They also stopped by Home Depot to buy a new Christmas tree.

The Branscums plan to spend $800 to $1,000 this holiday season. They say if they had kids, they’d be spending much more.

Friday, 8:35 a.m.

The atmosphere was calm at the stores Judy Phillips and Bonnie Dow had hit Friday morning. Their annual Black Friday trek began Thanksgiving night at a mall in Wilton, a town north of Albany, N.Y. They eventually made it to Target in nearby Clifton Park.

“No one’s been fistfighting with anybody,” Dow said.

Phillips said they got “great deals” on such items as blankets, sheets and comforters, but her efforts to buy the popular Furby toy had come up empty.

“They’re all sold out,” she said.

Friday, 9:05 a.m.

Jill Teal said she does most of her shopping online, but she was out at Kohl’s department store in Clifton Park with her sister, Judy Espey. Their shopping trip started at 4 a.m.

Espey, the mother of three children ages 12 to 16, said her purchases included the Beats line of headphones and speakers.

She actually began her shopping Thursday night, when she ducked out after having dinner with her family to buy a 50-inch flat-screen television at Wal-Mart for $288. But said she’s not thrilled that stores now open on Thanksgiving, believing that it takes away from the fun of shopping with friends on Black Friday.

“I don’t really dig the Thanksgiving night thing. I feel bad for the workers,” Espey said. “They’ve ruined Black Friday.”

Friday, 9:30 a.m.

Vinnie Gopalakrishnan saw footage on TV of people shopping on Thanksgiving Day and thought they were all crazy.

But then Gopalakrishnan’s cousin told him about a 70-inch flat-screen TV on sale at Wal-Mart for about $1,000 — a savings of about $600. Gopalakrishnan got in his car for his first Black Friday outing.

“I’m not even Christmas shopping,” he said. The TV “is just for me.”

The store was much quieter than the night before, when workers had set up metal barricades outside to keep people in an orderly line. By Friday morning, workers were dismantling the barricades and checkout operators were standing by their registers, waiting for customers.

As he waited at a store in Niles, Ill., Gopalakrishnan thought his odds were good, but knew there was no sure thing.

“There’s blood in the water,” said Gopalakrishnan, a 34-year-old restaurant manager from the Chicago suburb of Bolingbrook.