Holiday Memories: Mom’s Sears Boycott

Photo of an old sidewalk clock with a red Christmas bow tied around it, with old brick buildings in the background.

These days I receive a few very random catalogs in the mail, but it’s nothing compared to the absolute glut of catalogs we received at our house when I was a kid. Still, of all those mounds of catalogs, there was one that truly was the king. I am talking, of course, about the Sears catalog.

That thing was an absolute beast of a book. I would compare it to a phone book, but as I have written about before, the phone book itself is an artifact from another age. In terms of size I would compare it to a dictionary, and at the risk of being sacrilegious I would say it was most definitely biblical at least in terms of thickness. If you are someone who has ever made the mistake of ordering from Uline one time, then you will appreciate the metaphor that the Sears catalog of yore was the equivalent of roughly three Uline catalogs. Children developed spinal problems just lugging that thing from that mailbox.

Christmas was a special time for the Sears catalog which put out the Sears Wish Book. Children would drool over its pages as they looked at all the very cool and awesome toys they hoped that Santa Claus would bring them that year. I can remember turning the pages of the Sears Wish Book with one hand while scribbling down everything I really, really wanted on a list for Santa with my other hand.

My parents, God love them, are in their 70s and still write Christmas wish lists each year. As someone who buys gifts for them let me say this is not as helpful as you might think. My mom’s list is generally filled with things like “World Peace” and “A Happy Healthy Family” along with a few material items that my dad has already bought for her. At the other end of the spectrum is my dad’s list which will have things like a private jet, and multiple luxury cars on it along with some more affordably priced goods that he has already gone ahead and purchased for himself.

Still, this year I decided to try and really be on top of things, and got started on my Christmas shopping on Black Friday, from the comfort of my own home. By Tuesday I found myself thinking of that year that my Mom began her boycott of Sears. This was the late 1980s and Mom’s boycott stemmed not from DEI initiatives or political contributions, but from her own version of vengeance.

Back then, Christmas was not my mom’s favorite holiday. The hustle and bustle of the season was not her thing. The Christmas season can be overly hectic, and she had a full time job to boot, so I get that it felt unnecessarily overwhelming. Couple this with the fact that Mom is one of those people who gets extra cranky when it gets dark early, and you can understand why she might not look forward to December.

The year her Sears boycott began, Mom was determined to get on top of things. Her plan was to save herself from all the running around and mall visits that holiday shopping usually entailed. She was going to order everything from the Sears catalog. Back in those days this was accomplished by either making a phone call or by mailing in an order form. Next day delivery was not a thing in the 1980s. Delayed gratification was something we were all very familiar with because after placing an order with a mail order company we would have to wait weeks to receive our goodies, or as it worked out in Mom’s case she had to wait weeks to find out that half the items she had placed an order for were back-ordered and would not arrive in time for Christmas.

Christmas was right around the corner and Mom found herself having to do the thing that she had been trying so hard to avoid, scrambling at the last minute and making trips to crowded shopping malls to finish her Christmas shopping. She blamed Sears, and for years boycotted the store on principal. For those thinking that Mom’s vendetta brought around the downfall of the once mighty store, I can assure you that she eventually came around to patronizing the store again, long before their demise.

Anyway, what made me think of Mom’s boycott is that one of the two items I ordered for pickup at a local store ended up being out of stock and was cancelled, a frustrating fact since the second item which was in stock actually went with the cancelled item. (Sorry, for the vagueness but people I buy Christmas gifts for read this.) Tuesday morning I learned that another item, which I had ordered on Friday was now back-ordered and not expected to ship until December 12th. That should still be enough time, but this is for part of a gift that needs to get shipped to distant relatives in time for Christmas, something that I optimistically thought I would be doing on December 11th. Also I am a little annoyed that I didn’t get the back-ordered message until Tuesday, you know after many Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales had concluded, and also a day after I had done my own in person shopping trip. And that in person shopping trip? I would say it was maybe fifty percent successful. After visiting a few stores in search of something that I didn’t think would be that difficult to find I had to resort to ordering it online. So, I’m not ready to take a page out of Mom’s book and begin my own one-woman boycott, but I do get the frustration.

Meanwhile my sister is apparently crushing it this year with her holiday shopping as she sent me an email on Monday to let me know that her Christmas gift was already in the mail, and Monday afternoon I received the first holiday card of the season from an old friend so at least somebody is living up to their holiday goals. And me? I’m just sitting here remembering a time when the sum total of my holiday obligations was to dutifully study each and every page of the glorious Sears Wish Book.

Hoping you are doing a better job than I am with your holiday shopping this year!