Mark the calendars, starting Nov. 1, tis’ the season of shopping. The explosion of fireworks in the north parking lot of Oakland Mall, hosted by Macy’s, is used to initiate the Christmas shopping season. From this point on, America is rushing to get those deals to stock up on gifts for the upcoming Christmas season.

A staple for Christmas shopping are the Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals. People across America try to take advantage of these deals. Some will travel long and far for these special deals, or some don’t even care for these deals. For the people who celebrate this magical day of savings, Some even go as far as to wait outside of several stores for hours upon hours to save a few extra bucks. Exposed to the elements, in long lines, filled with ravenous people scrounging for deals.

“I think that it’s definitely worth the time and prices. I feel like many people take advantage of these Black Friday deals,” senior Sophia Cortez said. “It’s a great way to get a head start on Christmas shopping, because you can get a lot of stuff for a very good, cheap price.”

Associated with shopping, comes the struggles of shopping for other genders. A popular stereotypical struggle is that fathers generally struggle shopping for their daughters, and shopping for their spouses. Although, this father has taken on a new perspective on the usual struggle for Christmas shopping.

“It’s easy to buy gifts for women over men’s clothes, in my opinion, because women have a broad spectrum of gifts that they like, such as shoes, or clothes,” teacher Brian Drobnich said. “Then, when you try to shop for a boy, they don’t particularly like any of that. They aren’t going to appreciate a pair of shoes or a shirt like women do. They would prefer a phone or gifts cards.”

Another struggle is shopping for the little kids in the household. As some of us know, Santa Claus is merely just a made up figure that we talk about to the little kids in America, and globally, when we roll around to this season. Asking popular questions such as “What are you asking Santa for this year?” or “Have you been good for Santa year, good enough for gifts instead of a lump of coal?” In the Rice household, this also shows as a struggle. Having young children in the house imposes the issue of keeping the spirit of Santa alive.

“I find it difficult keeping the spirit of Santa Claus alive in my home, it’s definitely a challenge,” teacher Melissa Rice said. “Being that my kids are six and seven, it imposes a struggle, such as getting home to get the presents I ordered online before the bus comes.”

With all this talk of Christmas, we are missing a component to it all. Not everyone celebrates Christmas nowadays. To some, it may seem uncommon, but, there are many people around us who do not celebrate this holiday. Instead of being scrooge about it, some are taking a new approach to the busy holiday season in America.

“Although I don’t celebrate Christmas, I still celebrate the season of shopping. Just because I don’t celebrate the holiday doesn’t mean that I won’t take advantage of deals or sales that come with Christmas,” senior Kinjal Chudasama said. “Such as Black Friday. many use the day to get a head start on shopping for Christmas. So, rather than shopping for Christmas, I just shop for myself. I really enjoy it, because I can get all the stuff I want and need for a better price than at retail price.”

At the end of the season, the economy greatly benefits from the holiday season. In recent years, the industry has increasingly benefited more and more due to all of the people shopping for friends and families during the holidays. According to USA Today, consumers will be spending a total of around 1,000 dollars this year. If you didn’t think that sum of money was a lot already, the sum of all Christmas spending is predicted to be around 730 billion dollars. These statistics are around a four percent increase from the holiday season of 2018. Whether or not someone celebrates the holidays, the shopping season that surrounds them can benefit anyone.