Novel and Nosh

From One-Click Carts To Shared Moments: Rekindling The Joy Of Holiday Shopping

• Courtney

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In this reflective holiday episode of Novel and Nosh, we explore what’s gained and what’s quietly lost when convenience takes the driver’s seat during the Christmas season. Sparked by a simple conversation about online shopping, Courtney shares nostalgic memories of mall dinners, open-air shopping trips with friends, and the small, sensory-rich moments that made gift-gathering feel magical.

Together, we look at how modern life, burnout, and the emotional labor so many midlife women carry make convenience a lifeline—and why it deserves zero shame. But we also unpack the subtle ways convenience can flatten our experiences and separate us from the rituals, surprises, micro-connections, and sensory delights that ground us and help regulate our nervous system.

This episode offers a compassionate “middle path”: practical ways to blend the ease of online shopping with simple, seasonal traditions that bring back meaning—like creating one intentional shopping outing, pairing errands with cozy rituals, browsing for just one special gift in person, or using convenience to support small makers.

You’ll walk away with gentle questions to help you notice where convenience truly serves you, and where a little slowness might bring back joy, connection, and presence.

Tune in for nostalgia, nuance, and an invitation to savor the season—one small experience at a time.

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SPEAKER_00:

Welcome to Novel and Notch, where stories, food, and experiences come together. Today I want to share something that I've been thinking about. Because the other day I was out with some women, and there was a conversation about were people done with their Christmas buying presents. And one woman's comment was about how she just went online, she went to one store and got everything for Christmas, so she's done. And it made me think about what is lost when we do that. And this is not about guilt or calling that person out for how they do things. My mother would make a Christmas list of the things that she wanted. My father and I would go to the mall. We would eat dinner at either the food court or a small restaurant within the mall. And then we would go hunting down all of these gifts that she wanted. Um, you know, the list of gifts for the stocking and for under the tree. And we would always make sure to stop at the kitchen store to gather up some chip clips, which my mother would always begrudgingly open those gifts, annoyed that we had gotten her more chip clips in her stocking. You know, these funny gifts that we could giggle about. Same thing with a girlfriend of mine when I was in middle school. Her and I would go to a local open-air mall. And we were we would be dropped off for say two or three hours, and we would go eat lunch at a little cafe, and then we would go through all the shops and look for those special gifts for families and friends. And these are memories that I have, and it just made me think about what is being lost in convenience. And how can we start to slow down in our lives and start to experience these things again so that we don't feel overburdened and burnt out and rushed in life? Things that are lost when we shop online. Everything is optimized, filtered, and recommended. We miss all of the surprises, item we never knew existed, the book spine that catches our eye or falls off the table that makes us, you know, look at it. The shopkeeper who shares a story of a product that she loves or that a family member loves that you may enjoy as well. The texture of things, thinking of the whole experience, the sensory experience. I talk about how I am very much involved with the senses when I read. These are things in our life where there are so many opportunities to use our senses, walking through the mall, maybe smelling coffee shops, or you know, even down. Unfortunately, we in my town, we don't have a lot of little shopping districts. It's the mall that you go to to shop pretty much. But, you know, like smelling coffee shops or food courts, talking to the people in the checkout line, smiling at strangers as you're walking down the street or through the mall. These micro connections regulate the nervous system. They help us to feel a sense of calm. Going shopping together, you have the car rides on the way there, listening to the Christmas music, trying on scarves or feeling the textures of the clothing, grabbing a coffee or a latte before you go shopping. All of these things are seasonal rituals that start to, you know, you do it once and then you do it again over time. And it marks that time, it makes that holiday feel like something. It allows us to engage in all of our senses and helps us to live in our life rather than checking off the next thing on the to-do list. And I want to make sure that no one feels judged because I'm not saying that these are things that I don't do. I have bought a lot online. There have been years in my life where Christmas had to be bought online. Like that's how I had to do it. Look, we are tired as a culture. We are burnt out, we are overloaded and rushed. Us as women, especially for those of us in midlife who may be caring for elderly parents and also helping raise our children still, we are dealing with the emotional labor that comes with all of that. We are also working. We are still parenting our young children or our older children and dealing with all of the home tasks that need to be done in the house. And many times us sitting down at the computer to purchase all of the things that we need in that one cell swoop can be an act of survival. And I want to make sure you know that this, like I said, is no judgment. I understand that sometimes that is just what we have to do. But I want you to think about this as this is not a shame on anyone for using Amazon. It's an exploration into if we are feeling so burnt out and exhausted and overwhelmed, are there little things that we can start to do to push back on this way of society, the way the culture has gone, and start living in the now more. Some of the benefits of convenience is the accessibility and time saving. You know, some seasons are not going to allow for leisurely shopping trips. Online shopping gives us time back for rest, reading, baking, things that also build joy. So if this is an opportunity for you to be at home creating other experiences, amazing. That is definitely what I would love for us to do. We can buy from small businesses across the nation. You know, like I mentioned, my area where I live, I live in a town that has a lot of big-box businesses and chains. So there aren't a lot of small independent businesses to go out and support. So having the convenience of going online can allow for me to support other businesses across the nation, small businesses across the country that I could not access locally. Another thing that it helps with, obviously, are those of us who are caregivers or dealing with people in our family or ourselves that are disabled or have a very tight schedule. This convenience is a lifeline for many people. And I do not want to deter that. And it reduces holiday stress. I don't have to go from shop to shop to shop to find everything I need to fill my kids' stockings. I can do it all in one place. That is important and it streamlines the mental load for us. But I want to ensure that we aren't giving up one thing so that we can sit and scroll or work more. You know, this is about experiencing things in our life, and how can we do that? So I want to kind of provide a middle path because I feel like there is a way to do both. There is a way to be that bridge. And um, I I heard someone mention the other day how Gen X is the bridge generation. And I thought it was so good to hear this because we grew up in a time we spent our whole childhood without this fast-paced computer internet world. We knew what it was like to wait for things. We knew what it was like to wait for our favorite jacket that was on layaway. That was me. I had to put money each week or month, I can't even remember. Put that jacket that I wanted so bad on layaway and wasn't able to pick it up. I think it was like a month later I was able to pick it up. So we had to experience that. We had to wait for things to come seven to ten day business days through the mail. We had to be bored. We we sat and we were bored and we had to come up with our own games and ideas. And we are also the generation where, as adults, we have lived our whole adult life in the world of computer and electronics. So we have seen basically the best of both worlds. We understand how important and how convenient certain things are with the internet, but we also experienced, which the millennials didn't get to experience, we also got to experience slow living. So we are that bridge generation that gets to help the next generation see the amazing things that convenience can do, but then also the experiential things that slow living can bring and help guide these future generations to kind of find that medium, that middle ground to bring them forward so that we're not all burnt-out robots walking around, basically. Okay, so the middle path. Let's look at it. Let's use convenience without losing some of this magic. And these are a few ideas that I'm thinking. So maybe you look at creating one shopping trip and making that a ritual, whether it be a specific place that you go or um a specific day that you go. Most of your shopping might be online, but you want you you choose one store trip or holiday market outing. I know when my kids were younger, um, it was very easy to go to Target to buy their Christmas gifts. And yes, I know this is a big box store, but um, you know, this is one thing that we would do is we would go as a whole family, we would all point out things that we liked, and then, you know, dad would take one child off. I would hold the others, and then, you know, he would then take the next child off. And that was where each person, each child got to pick their gift for everyone in the family, and we kind of did it that way, you know, make one shopping trip a ritual, or pair a shopping day with a lunch or a coffee and make the outing the event, not the errand. So, you know, we're gonna go to the bookstore to grab a couple of um bookstore gifts and have a coffee or a hot chocolate to enjoy, and that would be like an evening event, a thing that you do. Or you could um blend online and in person. So you would buy your basics online, all of the things that you need to get your stocking stuffers, the things you do year after year, and then save a special or meaningful item for in-person browsing. Say I'm gonna go buy one gift for each person in the family based on a day where I just go shop and find and see what I see. And if something sparks joy, then that's gonna be what I get for so and so. You could also make a concerted effort to use your online shopping to support small businesses. And one thing that I want you to also think about is when I think of I keep talking about shopping, Christmas shopping, and the amount of consumerism that goes on, and how we can think about supporting local bakeries, seasonal treats, or small batch makers for more items that you know, like a candle, usable items or experiential items. All of these things can be used for that. And online, you can you can go find these types of things online as well to support these smaller businesses. So basically, I just the the whole point of this conversation is to have you reflect to think about when does convenience truly serve me and when does it flatten an experience I might want to savor? Is this a time for me to go shopping and have a day out with my family or a friend and experience that small holiday market? Or is it something that I can do quickly online for convenience's sake? So that is my thoughts. And I would, you know, my recommendation to you if I were to say go out and live more in the experience. That is what I'm going to ask you to do this weekend, is take one day, one hour, and go out into your community and shop, whether it be for, like I said, a baked good at a local bakery that maybe you want to pick up to take to a holiday party, so that you're supporting a small business in your own community, or going and shopping at a mall so that you're interacting with other people within your community. Find an opportunity to go Christmas shopping and experience that Christmas shopping. And then join us if you go to novelandosh.com, click on join the community or the bake and book club, and let us know in the community what you experienced, what you the all the good, the good, the bad, and the ugly from going out and trying that this weekend. Happy holidays to everyone, and I look forward to seeing how you experienced the Christmas shopping this weekend.