Am I the only one who hates holiday gift guides?

I can't even look at my inbox right now

Hey Friends,

Is it just me, or is Black Friday turning into a whole season? Nothing makes me long for the 90s as much as the piles of repetitive sales emails littering my inbox in the days and weeks surrounding Thanksgiving.

I first learned about Black Friday in 5th grade when my friend Liz asked if my family participated in the post-Thanksgiving shopping spree ritual. I’m pretty sure my response was, “What!? That sounds horrible! Why would you want to do that?”

Fast forward 30 years, (I originally wrote 20 and then had to do the math; I’m old!) and Black Friday has morphed from its original atrocity to a seemingly boundary-less phenomenon that goes by many names. There’s Black Friday, of course. Small Business Saturday. Then Cyber Monday. And then all the businesses continue adding ONE MORE DAY just so they can keep pelting you with obnoxiousness.

The most recent spin-off of all this in-your-face consumerism is the Holiday Gift Guide.

I fuckin' hate these.

True, they’re not nearly as pushy as sales emails, but they give me 10x the anxiety.

Why, you ask? I’ll tell you.

Decision Fatigue Is Real

Many gift guides contain 20, 50, or even more items. It’s literally enough to boggle your mind.

The concept of decision fatigue is derived from the Strength Model of Self-Control posited by Baumeister, Bratslavsky, Muraven, & Tice (1998). A central tenet of their model is that humans have a limited capacity to regulate their behavior. Akin to muscle fatigue after exertion, humans deplete internal resources when performing acts of self-regulation, such as processing information to formulate a decision.

Pignatiello, et al. “Decision Fatigue: A Conceptual Analysis.”

Essentially, the more choices you have, the more stressed you will be.

I don’t know about you, but when I sit down at a restaurant and open a multi-page menu, my stomach knots up so bad I nearly lose my appetite. Same goes for shopping.

While I value genuine product recommendations in small doses, a product-heavy gift guide makes me nauseous. I simply do not want to look at a list of a bajillion things I could buy.

You Never Know if They’re Trustworthy

I’m assuming some publications actually have their writers try every product they include in a gift guide or review.

But I know for a fact that’s not always the case.

As a freelance writer who needs to pay her bills, I’ve been known to write product guides and reviews. Sometimes, if I’m writing for a larger publication and have time to reach out to brands ahead of deadline, I’ll get some free gear out of it.

More often, it’s an affiliate article designed to make money for the blog owner. In these cases, I only include products from e-commerce sites where the owner has an affiliate account, thus limiting the scope of what can be included. If it’s a list of 20+ items, I definitely don’t try all the products myself.

However, I should note that I’ve never worked on a proper gift guide article, and I’m not suggesting they’re all full of baloney.

In Conclusion

I understand that people work really hard on putting together gift guides around the holidays, and I hope others find them helpful.

However, they stress me TF out.

For this reason, I’ll continue to avoid them

If you feel the same, leave a comment or reply to this email so I know I’m not alone!

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Things I Love This Week

🦃 Have you ever wondered why we eat turkey on Thanksgiving? This Moden Farmer article explains the main dish’s history.

❄️ Winter skincare szn! I just bought this Hydration Wonderland gift set from Sephora, and it’s so good. Skincare gift sets are always a great value, and I think First Aid Beauty is underrated for its quality.

🎄 My 2023 Yule playlist is in the works!

🎃 If you follow my Instagram stories, you know I made sourdough pumpkin spice muffins using this recipe from Homestead and Chill and they are DELICIOUS 😋 I also purchased my starter from their online store. 5 stars all around!

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Thanks so much for reading! I hope your Thanksgiving was great!

Love,

Lauren

PS - To support my work, you can buy me a coffee. I appreciate you!