The Deal with Black Friday

If Thanksgiving in America wasn’t American enough, there is Black Friday: the holiest shopping day of the year.

Not to be confused with the stock crash and somber days of Black Monday, basically when the financial world came to a halt, Black Friday marks the first day of the Christmas shopping. And why black? In terms of finances, most companies say they are in the ‘red’ (i.e. holding debt, negative profits), or in the ‘black’ (i.e. making profits).

Since the majority of a retailer’s sales occurs during the Christmas season, most see their balance sheet go from red to black.

After checking up on Wikipedia, the first time Black Friday was used in context of Thanksgiving was in 1966 in Philadelphia:

JANUARY 1966 — “Black Friday” is the name which the Philadelphia Police Department has given to the Friday following Thanksgiving Day. It is not a term of endearment to them. “Black Friday” officially opens the Christmas shopping season in center city, and it usually brings massive traffic jams and over-crowded sidewalks as the downtown stores are mobbed from opening to closing. [source]

Black Friday as a coined term was used again in 1975 and became more common in the 1980s when retailers themselves used it as a day of blessing to bring in good sales through the Christmas Season.

And well today Black Friday is the best and craziest shopping day of the year. Usually queues begin at 1 or 2 am as stores open for doorbuster events from 4-6AM. Everyone from Best Buy to Target to The Body Shop are in on it.

How to Plan for War on Black Friday

Basically, Black Friday is the bring out the guns and warpaint day. If you can’t handle crowds, chaos, don’t shop on this day.

First you need to do a reconnaissance mission, ie. organized planning and scouting of the target location. Then you need to decide who goes to what store, where are the meetup points in the city, etc.

Last year we (6 swedes, 5 americans) headed off the Gilroy Premium Outlets… at 11.30pm Thanksgiving Night. Yes, we battled war with the truest of the insane shoppers. I mean, it took 30min to get off the highway and to the mall area. Lines started at midnight for shops that were opening at 3am.

After finishing shopping at 5AM, we ate at Dennys, headed back home at 7AM. My two friends and I just slept in the car for two hours (in front of the house). At 9AM, we drove one hour north to San Francisco to battle the crowds at the largest underground retailer, Jeremy’s.

Then in the afternoon, I switched teams, and joined my friend Tony to finish up. Torbjörn and his friends napped until noon then battled the electronic superstores.

We reconvened at 7PM for dinner at Chevy’s Mexican restaurant.

Total hours of pure shopping/standing in lines: 10 hours
Nap times/breaks: 3 hours
Driving: 5 hours

Welcome to Black Friday, America’s Holiest day.

November 27, 2009 | 5 Comments »

Swedish Christmas Holidaying, Too Many but oh so Fun!

As a non Swede, I’m not quite sure what’s the deal with all the Christian holidays in a very pagan country. I just feel it is another reason to drink, eat, and drink again. And be really crazy. So I put together a little list of all the dates you should know during the Christmas season, the Swedish way.

Advent
Until today, I had no idea what Advent is but it is the official Christian Christmas holiday season. Advent starts on the 4th Sunday before Christmas, so this year it’s on November 28th. Get your swedish christmas decorations up folks and get the little Advent calendar. You know that calendar, the awesome little booklike thing with push through boxes in which chocolates hides.

If you would like to see an advent ceremony in Stockholm head to Skansen or Stadshuset. All other cities in Sweden will have ceremonies in the local kyrkan or stadshuset.

St. Lucia – December 13th
Early in the morning the Lucia parade (lussetåg) headed by Lucia, Queen of Light, would go around the house. The Queen, usually the youngest daughter in the family, wears a crown of candles (yes totally wild!) and a white dress with a red sash. Following her are her maids (tärnor), star boys (stjärngossar), and santa claus Tomte. And for yummies, the procession walkers carry saffron buns (lussekatter) and spicy gingerbread cookies (pepparkakor).

December 22nd or so…
Put up that Christmas tree, julgran. I’m sacrilegious and put my tree up at Thanksgiving.  Swedes put the tree up a couple days before christmas.

Christmas Eve (Julafton) – December 24th
If you love Donald Duck and Disney, Christmas Eve in Sweden is THE most awesome holiday ever. Donald’s always been my favorite disney character (seriously, screw Mickey) and in Sweden he hosts the the Christmas Special. At 3PM. Every year. Without fail. Look for Donald’s Swedish name, Kalle Anka, and his special called Kalle Ankas Jul.

Once you’ve gotten over the splendid short clips from Bambi, Pinocchio, Cinderella, and more, it’s time to eat. Swedish Christmas food is both delicious and slightly strange at the same time. You will drink lots of glogg, pudding, lax, potatis, and more and more. Till you are stuffed.

After food, jultomte visits! If you’re good, lots of Christmas presents will come you way.

… by the way, December 24th is not a red day in Sweden. The 25th of course is a red day.

Christmas Day (Juldagen)– December 25th
After all the drinking and eating, it’s time to haul your ass to church.  Seriously, yes get up! Because after church, you will drink and eat all day.

Twelfth Night (Trettondagsafton) – January 5th
Twelfth Nights marks the official end of Christmas, which is on the 12th day. Pretty original and how the song 12 days of Christmas came to be. Most importantly, this is the day the Magi, aka the Wise Men, visited Jesus Christ and is called Epiphany Eve.

As trettondagsafton is the end of Christmas, many people take down their decorations. However with Knutdag, Swedes take down their decorations on the 13th. You know, just to be really different.

January 6th, is a red day, so yes another awesome holiday!

Knutdag – January 13th
Christmas ends on Knut’s dag. The tree is taken down, or plundered by the children (julgransplundring)

November 23, 2009 | 7 Comments »

It’s Christmastime! But uhhh…what Swedish Christmas Decorations to Put Up?

After my massive bashing on Swedish fashion, I figured I would at least credit Sweden with awesome decoration for Christmas.  I mean, I’ll still be hater on fashion here.

It’s definitely Christmastime in Stockholm.  The lights on Hornsgatan are lit up.  Ahleans has the pretty Christmas lights.  And even the Pressbyrans and 7-Elevens have that Christmas smell of Lussekatter.  Yummmy ! But for us foreigners, what is a Swedish Christmas and what do eat, do, and decorate during this six weeks of food eating?

No fear, Sapphire’s here! :P  At least to help with decorating your apartment to look like a proper Swedish Christmas one.  Here’s your Swedish Christmas wikipedia guide.

Tomten – The Santa Claus

The tomte is Santa Clause in Swedish.  Sweden has adorable Santas as they are not really full sized old men with beards and hats kind-of dolls.  They are little round balls with white fuzz as a beard and a red hat, basically an abstract version of Santa.  Be sure to get a couple tomtar and keep one near a window or on the counter.
Tomten

A very tall tomte. I think his hat was two feet tall!
Tomten - Swedish Santa

Varmljus – Candles

Plenty of candles are needed during the cold, dark Swedish winter.  Little tealights are classic and can be safely placed almost anywhere in the house.
This photo below is for when you put up the countdown from Advent to Christmas. Every Sunday until Christmas, you light a candle.
Advent Candles

Julstjärna – Swedish Stars

It’s quite possibly the most Swedish thing you could do: putting up white Swedish Christmas stars at the window.  Watch all the neighbors near you, in three weeks, stars everywhere.  Alas, at least now, people are getting more creative with different colors.
Christmas Stars

Änglar – Swedish Angels

Maybe not super Swedish per se, but angels are needed in all good Christmas decorations. I guess since the snowman is not as popular, angels will do.

If you want to support a great cause and buy Swedish goodies, I highly recommend Sally Ann – The Salvation Army store.  It’s a tiny store on Hornsgatan 94 in Sodermalm and all the products are fair trade.  The Swedish Angels below as well as the candles from above are from there.  I’m going to buy the rest of xmas decor from there!
Swedish Angels
and the most awesome of all…

Julbocken – Swedish Goat (aka the Gävlebocken)

The randomest of all, the julbock is the goat from Gävle, a city three hours north of Stockholm.  In the city square, a 42 feet tall, 23 feet wide, 3 tonnes straw goat is erected. Stig Gavlén, a marketing man, invented the goat in 1966. At that time it only cost 10,000kr to build.  Today it costs 100,000kr and for the last twenty five years, its been burned down.  Yea, a three tonnes beast burned on New Year’s Eve at midnight, all good fun.

Oh, did a little more research about the Yule Goat and its history goes back to pagan times of the Norse gods. Thor, one of the major gods, rode in the sky in a chariot drawn by two goats, Tanngrisnir and Tanngnjóstr. Goats were very valued then. Up until the 19th century in Scandinavia, it was julbocken that distributed christmas presents, not santa claus.

Julbocken - Gavle Goat

Since most us cannot put up a 40 foot tall goat in our apartments, we have little straw goats instead.  Just don’t place them near the candles.

November 20, 2009 | 10 Comments »