Laura Spencer at Work From Home Momma has answered one of our burning questions so we don't have to look any futher:
"...Online shopping has been around for many years....But, what is Cyber Monday? When is Cyber Monday?
According to the Wikipedia, Cyber Monday is the Monday after Black Friday when many online retailers run special deals. The term was invented in 2005 by shop.org, which has set up an entire Cyber Monday site....
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In a way, Cyber Monday is like part two of Black Friday, but without the crowds.
In fact, many people prefer online shopping to the physical challenge posed by crowded retail centers. With gas prices climbing ever higher, it's cheaper to simply walk to your computer and pull out the keyboard than it is to drive to the nearest mall...."
When I was in college I'd come home for Thanksgiving and hit the malls. I'd shop all day, every day, until it was time to go back to school. I remember hearing traffic helicopters reporting on the radio about parking lot conditions at different shopping centers. Amazing. It was amazing how chaotic the stores and malls were, and it was amazing that it didn't appear to affect me. I parked my car at the farthest reaches of the lot. I shlepped bags and made repeated trips to the car to unload. I waited in line for coat check, for assistance, for lunch.
But then I grew up, and discovered that there were more important things to do than waiting in interminable lines to be shoved by other shoppers and treated dismissively by temporary holiday season employees. This insight really hit home the year my niece turned ten, when I thought it would be really cool to give her ten small gifts instead of one large one, so I cruised the malls for two days looking for nail polish, notepads, socks, a calendar, and a bunch of other things. Easy, you say? Try doing that in December, eight and a half months pregnant, nauseated twenty hours a day. Not such a pretty picture now, is it?
That year I recognized that maybe hitting the malls during the holidays was not my destiny, and began gift shopping almost exclusively online.
What a relief.
My car stays parked in my garage. Lunch comes from my refrigerator, whenever I want. I carry packages into the house once they've been delivered. I can find anything I need, comparison shopping without having even to pick up the phone. The computer's always (okay, mostly) friendly, never cranky, or short-tempered or rude.
More and more people are covering their holiday shopping online, and if you're reading this, you're probably one of them.
I suppose if I really want to see Christmas cheer I can hang out with the Yule Log video.
