Not to date myself, but I can remember sitting around Thanksgiving night, flipping through the Sears and JC Penny catalogs, circling everything that was on a Christmas list that grew by the minute, hoping to arm my mom, grandmother, and aunt before they set out the next morning for Black Friday.
Did they always get what was on my wish list? No, sometimes they hunted bargains, found them, and that’s what would wind up under the tree. Occasionally those gifts were even better than something you thought you wanted just because it was hyped (me in 1986 getting Lazer Tag over Teddy Ruxpin was a prime example).