Temperatures drop, snow begins to fall and colorful lights go up around residential neighborhoods: the holidays are here. This ‘season of giving,’ as it’s been affectionately named, arrives with a time to share appreciation for family and enjoy holiday festivities. But just as the Grinch maliciously plotted against holiday cheer, capitalism has repurposed it for profit, casting Santa Claus as the CEO and us consumers as his tireless team of elves.

Over the years, notions of consumerism and overconsumption have transformed our relationship with the holiday season from a season of giving to a season of incessant wanting. One development that has especially exacerbated this process is the advent of online shopping, and its increasing prevalence over traditional brick-and-mortar means. 

As an essential day for holiday gift-giving, Black Friday once dominated American shopping culture –– tales of doorbuster sales, lines winding out of stores and customers camping outside malls to score the best deals were commonplace. In 2005, however, Cyber Monday was introduced as a “shopping holiday” dedicated to commercial online shopping deals. The event occurs during the busiest purchasing time of the year: right after Thanksgiving. 

“You have Black Friday, Small Business Saturday and now this concept of Cyber Monday,” marketing teacher Andy Croley said. “[The holiday] formed a few years back, and you can link it directly to Amazon. That has started this whole marketing campaign around online shopping, especially the rise we’ve seen during the holiday season.”

With Cyber Monday’s development, there was no longer a need to leave the comfort of your home for purchases. Online shopping giants like Amazon and eBay have reaped the most profit from this changing tide, with Americans spending a combined total of $9.8 billion on online Black Friday shopping in 2023. Amazon purchases made up 17.7% of that amount. The convenience of e-commerce is a driving factor in the swift rise of Cyber Monday; in terms of payment, inventory and accessibility, online platforms dominate the swarming consumer base of the holidays.  

“Many people have their payment information already linked into these apps, so you no longer have to consciously hand over cash to pay for something; you do it with a click of a button,” economics teacher Rachel Money said. “It’s harder to know how much you’ve spent until you look at your bank account or the card balance, so [online shopping has] definitely made shopping easier to do because you can do it when convenient for you. It’s no longer something you have to go out and think about.” 

Because of its ease, online shopping has fed into a greater culture of overconsumption, especially in America. This doesn’t just apply to holiday shopping, though; from buying groceries to luxury goods, shopping is no longer considered a full-day task. Online shopping’s convenience has thus allowed people to fall into a cycle of continuously buying more and more, as the activity can be done anytime, anywhere. By 2028, it’s projected that the total amount of money spent online during Black Friday weekend will grow to over $12 billion. This influx in shopping also contributes to a growing mountain of returns and waste. Online purchases are three times more likely to be returned than in-store ones, with return rates of 15.2% and 5% respectively. This year alone, unwanted presents will cost an estimated $10.1 billion. Returning items adds up to 30% more carbon emissions, assuming they’re not sent straight to landfills. This deadly cycle of overconsumption is fueled by brands that capitalize on it, utilizing strategic marketing to amplify our desire to buy more, often at the expense of sustainability.

Brands are not blind to this phenomenon; in fact, they encourage it. Using intentional marketing strategies, they are able to essentially hijack our minds, playing into consumer tendencies in order to persuade consumers to purchase things they may not need. 

“There are constant ads. Stores are very aware of the holiday season and how to market that to get people to increase their spending during the holidays. You never escape the advertisements during this time of year,” Money said. “Sometimes, the way the deals are advertised can seem so appealing, [but] the sales are constantly changing. What might have been the Black Friday deal might not be as good as the mid-December deal. So you see people shopping between stores to see who had the best deal, and returning to the first store and buying it from the second instead. So stores are probably experiencing a lot of returns at this time.”

As a result of the constant exposure to new deals online, gift-givers are motivated to buy more for themselves while shopping. Enticing deals and expansive inventories can often be a one-way ticket to overconsumption. The issue becomes more concerning when brands use emotional tactics to draw in consumers, causing buyers to replace the ‘giving’ of the holidays with sporadic, sometimes unnecessary, purchases. 

“For the holidays, I mostly do not online shop. When [shopping] online, I definitely think it’s impersonal because [the gift] is just from a clickable button, so I feel like it takes less effort [than] physically [going] to a store [and] looking through all the options,” senior Mohammed Maali said. 

“Shopping is an emotional experience for people. One thing about the advertising that happens this time of year [is that it] tries to get at the heartstrings [and] the emotions, because we’re in the season of giving. Now, for every two or three gifts people are buying, especially through online shopping, they’re buying two or three things for themselves along the way. It’s taken away from the meaning behind the gifts we give,” Croley said.

Social media platforms also have a role to play in this grand scheme of gift-giving. Every year, consumers turn to social media for gift ideas; using keywords and personalized algorithms, platforms have made holiday gift shopping more efficient and quicker. This year, 65% of Gen Z and millennials will use TikTok for gift inspiration.

In particular, influencer-driven campaigns have seen major success. Using ‘holiday gift guides’ and ‘recommendations,’ influencers can reach and sway their audiences tremendously. In fact, influencers can persuade individuals to make purchases ten times more than any other social media method. 

“If you link [online shopping] back to this Cyber Monday concept — that’s really where it’s taken off — now they’ve combined that with social media influencers. The power there right now is amazing, especially if you’re trying to sell something. It’s easier to be swayed,” Croley said. 

Additionally, the long sales and promotion campaigns that brands and department stores advertise to customers have made Black Friday less appealing to the public. What used to be a specific weekend with enormous sales has now devolved into much less of a specific ‘event’ for shoppers. Some have even coined the term “Black November” instead of Black Friday to comment on the absurdity of the length of some sales campaigns. 

In comparison, online shopping and purchases as an industry are doing better than ever. While this is great for brands and customers, people often forget about the people and organizations behind their purchases that make the ‘magic’ of this holiday season actually happen. More specifically, Amazon and UPS employees work tirelessly during the holiday period from sorting the massive influx of packages to delivering each package to customers’ doorsteps in a smooth and timely manner. To keep up with such high demand, top retailers such as Amazon and Target hire hundreds of thousands of seasonal workers. And oftentimes, these employees work without receiving the proper compensation, recognition and patience for their labor. As a Target employee himself, Maali has experienced the stresses of working retail in the holiday season.

“During the seasonal times, like this past week, Target [has] been extremely busy. We had a lot of orders we had to pack, and the store has been messy all over the place, and we had more workers working,” Maali said.

Recently, a group of Amazon teamsters in Skokie, Ill. went on strike to protest unfair labor conditions and demand higher wages to support them and their families. Amazon has since refused to acknowledge their labor union or negotiate a labor agreement, simply ignoring the issue entirely. This is setting a dangerous precedent, as delivery drivers in other areas are also preparing to strike because of inadequate pay and inhumane hours, threatening key services.

To the customer, it may seem like we can just click a button and have a package magically appear at our front doorstep. But in reality, there are real people and real struggles behind each and every package that is shipped out — a truth that many Americans are blithely unaware of. 

Since 2022, Amazon has implemented its ‘Thank My Driver’ feature to all customers who own a device with Amazon Alexa embedded into it, allowing them to give a $5 tip to the driver who delivered their package. However, this promotion is only valid for the first 2 million responses. It also only occurs during the holiday season, beginning on Dec. 4 this year. As there are 161.7 million Amazon Prime customers in the U.S., this quota is bound to be met very quickly. While the sentiment is nice, it is not a solution for the much bigger income issues that concern these drivers.However, there are still some changes that can be made to combat the beast of holiday hyper-commercialization. Gift-giving should still remain an important part of the season, but with slight adjustments to consumer shopping habits. Try to shop in-person whenever possible, and use events like Small Business Saturday to support local entrepreneurs instead of billion-dollar conglomerates. Avoid the materialistic mania by gifting an experience such as tickets to an event or class — or, better yet, draw upon your inner creativity and make your own gift. Don’t be fooled by enticing deals and marketing tactics employed by companies to get you to buy things you don’t need; think twice about what you add to your cart. In doing this, we can break the cycle of overconsumption that’s become deeply integrated into our routines and fight back against the companies that propagate it — putting the heart back into the holidays.