The History Of Christmas Shopping! — Transcript

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1. 0:00if you've ever said Christmas has gotten
2. 0:02to commercial well you're not the first
3. 0:04complaints about excessive spending
4. 0:07during the holidays go back over a
5. 0:09hundred years when Victorians lamented
6. 0:11about having to buy cards and gifts for
7. 0:13all their acquaintances and recoiled
8. 0:16from the garishness of london's
9. 0:17department store displays today we're so
10. 0:20used to the marriage of Christmas
11. 0:22shopping that we rarely stop to wonder
12. 0:24how it got this way
13. 0:26is there something inherent about the
14. 0:28holiday that makes it so expensive and
15. 0:30is it really good for us or the economy
16. 0:34[Music]
17. 0:41many people think the tradition of
18. 0:43gift-giving comes from the story of the
19. 0:45Magi in the New Testament who visited
20. 0:47baby Jesus with gifts of gold
21. 0:49frankincense and myrrh but swapping
22. 0:52handmade gifts was already a part of
23. 0:54pagan winter festivals like the Roman
24. 0:56Saturnalia a raucous week-long party
25. 0:59which took place in late December as
26. 1:01Christianity spread across Europe
27. 1:03keeping the schedules and traditions of
28. 1:05established holidays made it more
29. 1:07attractive to prospective converts so
30. 1:09sometime around 300 AD the church
31. 1:11officially moved Jesus's birthday to
32. 1:13December 25th for over a thousand years
33. 1:17Christmas ambled along as a minor
34. 1:19observance nowhere near as important as
35. 1:21the major Christian holiday Easter in
36. 1:23the 1600s Puritans like Oliver Cromwell
37. 1:27and the pilgrims who settled America
38. 1:29outright banned the celebration of
39. 1:31Christmas because they found it too
40. 1:32decadent and pagan II it really wasn't
41. 1:36until the early 1800s that Christmas as
42. 1:39we know it today
43. 1:40started to take shape thanks largely to
44. 1:42authors like Charles Dickens Washington
45. 1:45Irving and Clement Clarke Moore who
46. 1:47assembled some of their favorite holiday
47. 1:49customs into a standardized package they
48. 1:52rebranded it as a family centric
49. 1:54celebration with a strong emphasis on
50. 1:56generosity that meant sharing meals
51. 1:58donating to charity and of course
52. 2:01gift giving gifts were still mostly
53. 2:04handmade
54. 2:05a lot of money was spent on boots
55. 2:07whether you were a poulterer
56. 2:09a baker a brewer or a food were it's a
57. 2:12word December was a busy and profitable
58. 2:15month as the Industrial Revolution
59. 2:17kicked into high gear urban populations
60. 2:20increased and manufactured goods became
61. 2:23widely available to a burgeoning middle
62. 2:25class gifts shifted from something you
63. 2:28made to something you bought by the end
64. 2:31of the 1800s Christmas had been
65. 2:33commandeered by an institution that
66. 2:35would hold it hostage for a hundred
67. 2:37years as a department store these
68. 2:40all-in-one mega retailers would go all
69. 2:42out with elaborate decorations and
70. 2:45window displays that attracted huge
71. 2:47crowds print catalogs offered an easy
72. 2:50way to make wish lists and in 1890 an
73. 2:53American businessman named James Edgar
74. 2:55had a crazy idea of dressing up as Santa
75. 2:59Claus at his Massachusetts department
76. 3:01store and boy did that catch up there
77. 3:03everyone knows Christmastime it seems to
78. 3:06start earlier every year but you might
79. 3:09be surprised to learn that the first
80. 3:11people to advocate early shopping were
81. 3:13not retailers but labor activists the
82. 3:16season had become so busy that the
83. 3:19government allowed businesses to ignore
84. 3:21labor laws during the month of December
85. 3:22and employees were routinely overworked
86. 3:26many of them children in her essay the
87. 3:29travesty of Christmas n-double a-c-p
88. 3:31co-founder Florence Kelly advocated
89. 3:34early shopping as a way to alleviate the
90. 3:36pressure on workers and recounts the
91. 3:38story of a boy who died of exposure
92. 3:41after working an 18-hour shift
93. 3:43delivering Christmas gifts New York's
94. 3:46freezing winter department stores were
95. 3:48happy to make the holiday season as long
96. 3:51as possible but they had a sort of
97. 3:53unwritten rule amongst them that they
98. 3:55wouldn't start promoting Christmas until
99. 3:56after Thanksgiving so FDR pushed the
100. 4:00official date of Thanksgiving from the
101. 4:01last Thursday in November to the fourth
102. 4:03Thursday in November in order to squeeze
103. 4:06as many days as possible into the
104. 4:08shopping season
105. 4:10in the early 50s the day after
106. 4:12Thanksgiving became known as Black
107. 4:14Friday as a reference to the general
108. 4:16chaos that resulted from workers calling
109. 4:19in sick to get a four-day weekend
110. 4:21by the 1960s police departments had
111. 4:23adopted the usage to describe the
112. 4:25overwhelming crowds and traffic caused
113. 4:28by the onset of holiday shopping
114. 4:29retailers embraced the name with Black
115. 4:32Friday sales and promotions though they
116. 4:34did attempt to rebrand the origins of
117. 4:37the term into something more positive
118. 4:39despite what you've heard Black Friday
119. 4:41is not a reference to the day businesses
120. 4:43give back in the black stores have been
121. 4:45steadily pushing back the opening time
122. 4:48on Black Friday in the last few decades
123. 4:49from dawn to midnight even to
124. 4:52Thanksgiving evening prompting some
125. 4:54strikes by workers robbed at their
126. 4:56holiday dinner with family today Black
127. 4:59Friday is something of a controversy
128. 5:01with viral videos of mobs pushing and
129. 5:03fighting each other for the best
130. 5:04bargains it's become a symbol of the
131. 5:07greed and competitiveness that Christmas
132. 5:09is not supposed to be about tragically
133. 5:11epitomized by the death of a Long Island
134. 5:13Walmart employee who was trampled by 200
135. 5:17frenzied shoppers who broke through the
136. 5:18glass doors before the store opened both
137. 5:21Oliver Cromwell and Florence Kelly would
138. 5:23be very disappointed if they were alive
139. 5:25today and they'd be very confused by the
140. 5:28newest form of holiday consumerism
141. 5:30online Christmas shopping while
142. 5:33ecommerce only represents around 17% of
143. 5:36holiday shopping that number has been
144. 5:38steadily growing over the past decade
145. 5:41particularly focus on a day that the
146. 5:43National Retail Federation dubbed Cyber
147. 5:46Monday that's right
148. 5:48three days after Black Friday after a
149. 5:50tiring weekend of mall walking it seems
150. 5:53that many people decide to finish up
151. 5:55their holiday shopping on the web and
152. 5:57more than half of these orders are
153. 6:00placed from work computers only on lunch
154. 6:03breaks right guys even if you find all
155. 6:06this commercialism distasteful you still
156. 6:08have to admit that this annual spending
157. 6:10spree is good for the economy right
158. 6:12maybe not while many retailers indeed
159. 6:16depend on Christmas to remain profitable
160. 6:18there are concerns that have
161. 6:20nothing to do with spirituality or
162. 6:22tradition economics professor Joel Wald
163. 6:24Fogle famously called Christmas a
164. 6:26deadweight loss which basically means
165. 6:29that it's a lot of spending without an
166. 6:31equivalent positive game for instance if
167. 6:34I give Philip a $10 bill I've lost 10
168. 6:37bucks but he's gained 10 bucks
169. 6:39so the overall economy has broken even
170. 6:42but if I give Giulia a $10 gift that she
171. 6:45doesn't want and she just sticks it on a
172. 6:47shelf in the garage or even throws it
173. 6:48away I'm out ten bucks without any
174. 6:51equivalent gain elsewhere think of all
175. 6:54the millions of Christmas gifts people
176. 6:55have given or received that didn't end
177. 6:57up being used or enjoyed they've all
178. 7:00contributed to a dead weight and loss on
179. 7:02the economy estimated by Walpole to be
180. 7:04around 4.13 billion dollars a year but
181. 7:08you might say those purchases help the
182. 7:10manufacturer and the retailer doesn't
183. 7:13that make up for the loss true but in a
184. 7:15healthy economy businesses make money by
185. 7:18selling products that customers actually
186. 7:20want besides who are you trying to give
187. 7:23a gift to your nephew or Walmart
188. 7:26fortunately deadweight loss is pretty
189. 7:28minimal when it comes to close friends
190. 7:30and relatives because we know them well
191. 7:33enough to make good guesses about what
192. 7:34they'd want but if you're buying for
193. 7:36acquaintances coworkers or extended
194. 7:39family sticking to gift cards might make
195. 7:42them and the economy happier there have
196. 7:45been some movements to take the Commerce
197. 7:47out of Christmas like Buy Nothing day
198. 7:50not coincidentally held on Black Friday
199. 7:52and it is true that many people report
200. 7:55high levels stress or anxiety about
201. 7:58holiday shopping but at the same time
202. 8:00there seems to be a fundamental
203. 8:02connection between Christmas and
204. 8:04spending money that will probably never
205. 8:06go away
206. 8:06just look at the book that people like
207. 8:09to say invented Christmas as we know it
208. 8:12Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol
209. 8:14besides being filled with references to
210. 8:16shops and markets overflowing with goods
211. 8:19for purchase the main characters
212. 8:21principle flaw is that he's a penny
213. 8:23pincher
214. 8:28once Scrooge has his big transformation
215. 8:31and finally understands the true meaning
216. 8:33of Christmas the first thing he does is
217. 8:36throw open the window flagged down a
218. 8:38passing child and tell him to go buy
219. 8:40something go and buy it didn't who
220. 8:43invite good going by if Dickens is right
221. 8:47about Christmas being a celebration of
222. 8:49family and generosity well you can't
223. 8:52throw a party or give to charity without
224. 8:54parting with some mushy lling that
225. 8:56doesn't mean you should Santa yourself
226. 8:58into the poorhouse but humans have an
227. 9:01obvious tradition of connecting through
228. 9:03gift giving so it's okay that for one
229. 9:06month of the year we're willing to make
230. 9:08an investment whose return can't be
231. 9:10recorded in a ledger and that's our two
232. 9:13cents thanks to our patrons for keeping
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239. 9:32you