Once upon a time, holiday shopping was a grand adventure that required strategic planning and spirit. Shoppers would walk through crowded malls, armed with shopping lists and the optimism to find the perfect gifts.
But technology advanced and change flew through the shopping aisles, carrying with it the craze of online deals and the distant sound of Amazon trucks. Now, the magic of in-store holiday shopping has run away like a sugar-high toddler in a candy store—whimsical and elusive between every aisle. It seems the Grinch has taken the form of convenient shipping.
Before online shopping, you would wake up early, put on your favorite festive clothing, and venture out to the mall. The joy of finding the perfect gift was like finding a rare treasure hidden among the mobs of other eager shoppers. But now, with the click of a mouse, you can have that treasure delivered to your doorstep in a day without ever needing to leave the comfort of your bed, which takes away what makes holiday shopping so special.
Picture Black Friday: people standing in lines overnight, fighting for expensive items more than 50% off, and stealing from other people’s carts. Black Friday, once the champion of retail madness, has now become a month-long “holiday” of discount deals that stay longer than glitter in your car, and the only midnight activity involves cozy pajamas, not camping outside stores.
In the age of online shopping, the thrill of finding unexpected treasures is replaced by algorithm-generated suggestions. The only lines found are in stores’ online shopping carts, and the only thing people are battling for their gifts is their slow internet connection.
I used to love waking up and seeing the crazy lines and packed stores as people fought for insane deals and stuff they didn’t even need to buy because of how ridiculous it was. But now I see stores empty, as if it’s any other day, with deals saying that prices dropped, when in reality the stores just raised their prices a few weeks prior.
Some argue that the loss of in-person shopping’s charm is a small price to pay for the convenience of the virtual marketplace. However, in our quest for efficiency, we have sacrificed a bit of the enchantment that made holiday shopping an experience in itself.
Some of what made holiday shopping so special was how people used to make a day out of it. It used to be a long day out with your friends and family as you painfully scoured stores for a Furbie or a Tickle Me Elmo. You would spend eight hours at the mall and come home with a truckload of filled bags. You would feel like you earned all the holiday joy knowing you gave the best gifts by putting effort into it. You felt like your pain was worth it. But now, it feels almost meaningless. You find everything you want to buy on Amazon in less than 10 minutes and it arrives at your door the next day. I mean, you can even pay Amazon to pre-wrap the gifts for you.
In its heart, holiday shopping is all about the thought—that’s what really counts. It was knowing that the gifts you gave and received had effort and thought put into its purchase. It was knowing that your loved one thought of you for hours for the holidays.
When I was younger, my parents would take me and my two older sisters to Target or Five Below and set us off each with a cart to find whatever we think everyone would like. We would go up and down the store avoiding each other and running away when we went down the same aisles. When we were done, we would have to wait for our parents to check out by ourselves and hide the presents in our rooms to individually wrap—no matter how many times my sister yelled at me for being awful at wrapping gifts. Now we just make a list of Etsy or Amazon links of what we want to buy and wait for them to arrive within the week without a second thought.
If “Jingle All the Way,” was remade today, it would be a 15 minute short film featuring Arnold Schwarzenegger on Amazon Prime. While the convenience of online shopping is amazing—because who doesn’t love shopping in their pajamas—this season, break free from your digital cocoons for just one day. Sure, the thrill of unboxing a delivered package is like a mini-Christmas in itself, but why not add some adventure into your shopping? Look for that special something to make your loved one’s season more special.
