Boxing Day sales are a thing of the past

Since the rise of Black Friday and internet shopping, we can now quite literally have our (leftover) cake and eat it, writes Emma Henderson

Online shopping means we no longer have to brave the high street for the best deals (Getty)

Since America’s biggest shopping event, Black Friday, made its way across the pond, the Boxing Day and January sales have never been quite the same. The landscape of seasonal sale shopping has dramatically changed. Consumers now have the huge benefit of being able to buy presents at a discounted price before Christmas. So why wouldn’t we jump at this chance?

A decade ago, winter sales very firmly started on Boxing Day. It was, along with the January sales, the biggest event of the shopping diary. People would go mad, buying clothes, toys, sofas, kitchen appliances – quite literally anything and everything. Even next year’s festive wrapping paper and cards, for those who could face it. Some deal hunters would actually wait to buy the big Christmas present of the year on 26 December, in order to save themselves a few quid.

In those pre-Black Friday days, you’d have likely had to queue up outside a physical shop from about 5am and sacrifice gorging on leftovers at home in your Christmas jumper to really make the most of the festive sales. There was no truer sign of how strong British bargain-hunting culture was than seeing hordes of dedicated shoppers queuing in the cold, waiting for stores to open.