12 Things We Miss About The Way Holidays Used To Be

The Polaroid camera was the only semblance of immediate satisfaction. Remember when pictures had to be developed, and God forbid, you had to wait to see them?

Wait, what? There were no additional shopportunities (that word didn’t exist back then either) for the truly last-minute shoppers?

“A Year Without a Santa” only came on once in December. And since it was impossible to figure out how to program your Betamax's clock — never mind program it to record — you had to wait all year long to see that one Christmas special. And that’s what made it special.

To be fair, Twitter, Instagram and the Internet weren’t invented yet, but there were no #CyberMonday holidays either. Mondays were just Mondays.

We’re pretty sure the Black Friday insanity came about when manic moms and dads went on a tear at malls trying to track down the limited supply of Cabbage Patch Kids. People really got into the holiday spirit by pushing each other down escalators, stampeding one another and coming to blows over adopting fake babies that reeked of baby powder.

Your only concern about being naughty or nice stemmed from your mom or dad’s constant threats that Santa wouldn’t bring you gifts. You didn’t need a plush doll that hides in the liquor cabinet to instill fear in you.

Back then you couldn’t take the lazy route and hand someone the least thoughtful of all presents – the gift card. People had to be creative, they couldn’t check someone’s Amazon Wish List or shop online. Instead they had to go to the store, pick something out and wait “on line.”

There were no gluten-free fruitcakes, no hot cocoa with Lactaid milk and certainly no sugar-free Hanukkah gelt. You may have been afraid of Peanuts, but that was limited to the unsightly and constantly disheveled character, Pigpen.

Oh...wait, they still do that.

Elvis' soulful rendition of "Blue Christmas?" Classic. "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" with the timeless Brenda Lee? Classic. "Mistletoe" by Justin Bieber? Exactly.

Remember carolers coming to your door, bells chiming and general merriment around the holiday season? All that’s been drowned out by all of our personal devices chirping, beeping and nagging us for attention.

Family newsletters were your one shot every year to brag about Jenny’s graduation speech (from high school), show off your dog’s crazy elf outfit and boast about your new Datsun. You either typed them on a word processor, or if you were lucky, created them in Word Perfect with some graphics help from PrintShop. Today you can save time and update (read: bombard) friends regularly on the status of Tyler’s potty training and Kylie winning (because everyone wins now) the soccer game on Facebook.