2021's Most Popular Black Friday Deals

By: Maddie Pierce

It's the most wonderful time of the year… well not quite yet, but the holidays will be here before you know it! The holidays are such a joyous occasion but sometimes buying gifts for the ones you love can be expensive. That’s why going Black Friday shopping is a great way to save some money while also getting the best gifts. The mall is usually the most ideal place to shop when looking for gifts since there are so many options in one spot. If you live to the north of Boston like me, my favorite malls are the Burlington Mall in Burlington, MA or there is a new strip mall across from the Rockingham Mall in Salem, NH. Most stores usually do Black Friday sales that are a decent amount off of full price but also getting coupons online before heading out isn’t a bad idea either.

If you’re looking for ideas of what to get for Black Friday gifts, these are the top 5 gifts of the season this year and how much they go for.

  1. The first item is a Nintendo Switch. This item is very popular with kids, but if you would like to express your inner child and bring back the old days of when you were a kid, get one for yourself. You can usually find them at local stores like Target or Walmart or even a GameStop if there is still one open around you. Currently, at GameStop, Target, and Walmart, a Nintendo Switch is going for about $300-$400 depending on what version you would like to get.

  2. The next most popular item for Black Friday shopping is Apple Airpod Pros. These can be bought in many different places but since they are made by Apple, the primary place to get them is at an Apple store. If you were to buy them from Apple, the price would be around $250. If you have a budget and are concerned about pricing but don’t care about the brand name, there are cheaper alternatives at places like Target and Walmart where you can get quality headphones for less than $100.

  3. The third must-have gift of the season is an Apple Watch. Apple watches are very useful for when you are on the go and want to be in touch with your phone but hate carrying it around everywhere or occasionally lose it from time to time. Apple Watches can help to track your fitness while also providing you with your texts and phone calls. Again, Apple Watches are primarily made by Apple, so if you were to buy it from them, it could range from $200-$400 depending on the version.

  4. The fourth most popular gift for this holiday season is a PS5. Again, bringing out your inner child or just love playing video games, PS5’s are a great option for a person who enjoys staying in and playing video games. A PS5 is on the pricier side, so make sure you really love this person you’re getting this gift for before you give it to them. This item can be found at Walmart or Target or GameStop and will most likely be a little over $1,000. If this is too out of your budget, I’m sure a PS4 is just as nice since it is truly the thought that counts!

  5. The final lovely gift of the season is Pandora jewelry. Ladies and gentlemen, never underestimate a piece of jewelry because it can make your outfit go from good to glamorous in 0.2 seconds. Pandora is a lovely gesture to get your significant other. Everything in Pandora is going to vary in price but if you are looking to buy from there, be prepared to spend more than $50.

    All these gifts are great and I’m sure they will be appreciated by whomever you give them to, but these gifts will definitely test how deep your wallet is, so if it isn’t in your budget, don’t freight. Anything that has a little sentimental value in it will hopefully be loved by whoever you give it to, and if they can’t see the effort you put in the gift, take it from them to keep for yourself. Make sure you are getting recognized for your hard work and remember the holidays are supposed to be a happy joyous occasion. Good luck shopping and Happy Holidays!

Sources:

https://www.target.com/c/target-black-friday/-/N-5q0f2

https://www.walmart.com/shop/earlyaccess?&adid=2222222242031971157&wmlspartner=wmtlabs&wl0=p&wl1=g&wl2=c&wl3=555225938314&wl4=aud-952517650442:kwd-299519200251&wl5=9001635&wl6=&wl7=&wl8=&wl9=&wl10=&wl11=&wl12=&wl13=&veh=sem_nb&gclid=CjwKCAiA7dKMBhBCEiwAO_crFFontInJovW2yz_SfS-qW2TmlfK7M27i1uQVOdqwuqkcosfgYPfeEhoC9YIQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

https://www.gamestop.com/deals

https://us.pandora.net/en/jewelry/black-friday/

Family Traditions: Holiday in Style

By: Megha Parikh

As the holiday season rolls around, I can’t help but get excited about what’s to come: family time and snow. Every family celebrates the holidays in different ways, but here are some of my family’s holiday traditions.

ONE (partridge in a pear tree): Christmas Eve Eve Dinner

To start the festivities, we go to my aunt’s house for a classic Christmas Eve Eve dinner. She usually makes homemade enchiladas for dinner, but my favorite part has to be the dessert. From smores cake to Oreo truffles, my aunt is a dessert master. During this gathering, we play so many games with my three little cousins. My aunt sets up an advent calendar for my younger cousins and on Christmas Eve Eve, it’s always me and my sister going over to their house to play games with them. Some of my favorite games are the ‘Minute to Win it’ type games. I’ve put a few below. 

  • Shake It: to set this game up, you’ll need a box, belt, and ping pong balls. Cut a hole in the box, and two slits on the sides. Feed the belt through the slits and have the hole in the box face up. Tie the belt around someone’s waist with the box on their bum. Put the ping pong balls in the box. When the timer starts, tell them to jump around to get all the ping pong balls out of the box. The person with the shortest time wins! 

  • Oreo: take an Oreo and set it on everyone's forehead. Without using their hands, everyone needs to get the cookie into their mouths and eat it! First one to eat the cookie wins, although everyone’s a winner if they get to eat the Oreo!

  • Dice: to prepare this game, everyone needs to pair up. Each pair gets 8 dice, with each person getting 4. The goal of the game is to stack your 4 dice on your partner's forehead, while they are doing the same thing on your forehead. This game takes a lot of patience, teamwork, and family bonding (and the occasional yell!). 

TWO (turtle doves): Christmas Eve Morning

After the dinner, games, and dessert is finished, my mom, dad, sister, and I head back home and get a good night’s rest before waking up on Christmas Eve. When we wake up, my sister and I get all the fun activities for our cousins prepared. All the while, my mom and dad are preparing the house with decorations. 

THREE (french hens): Christmas Eve Afternoon

Once everything’s ready, my mom gives my aunt the thumbs up to start driving over. This means the holiday season is about to get real joyful. My cousins come over and off we go with the festivities and fun activities. I’ve put my top three (french hens) below:

  • Ugly Christmas Sweaters: after setting up a huge table full of arts and crafts materials like pom poms, bows, stickers, and pipe cleaners, we all make our own ugly Christmas sweaters!

  • Homemade Ornaments: every year my sister and I bring out a homemade paper Christmas tree. It’s bare, though, and each year we cut out circles on different colored construction paper so we can all decorate them. We take turns putting our final ornaments on the tree and decide who gets to put the star on the tree. Before we bring the finished tree upstairs, we make sure the ornaments are taped on. After we bring the tree upstairs from the basement and tape it on the wall, we have a grand reveal to the parents and put on the star!

  • Gingerbread House: one of our favorite activities that brings the whole family together, kids and adults alike, is a gingerbread-making contest. We make teams totally randomly, and designate some people to be the judges. Sometimes, we’ll put the pictures of the gingerbread houses on my mom’s Facebook and let her friends decide. 

FOUR (calling birds): Christmas Eve Night

After we finish the festivities, we get ready for a lovely eggplant parmesan dinner. We’ll either eat before, during, or after a holiday movie. Regardless, we always make time to make fresh cookies, eat a few, and leave the rest for Santa. We then change into our matching pajamas (because why not?) and then, it’s off to bed to wait for Santa. The cousins always sleep in the same room and even sometimes make a pillow fort to sleep under.

FIVE (golden rings): Christmas Morning

Although we went to bed, the cousins were never able to fall asleep because of excitement. However, since the parents stay up late, they put a wake up time of 7am on the cousins. This is so the parents can have some sleep and can be ready to record all our faces when we see all the goodies Santa’s left us. After we open up presents and give our round of hugs to each family member, we eat our staple Christmas morning breakfast: french toast casserole. We then say our goodbyes and start to break down the house from all the holiday decorations. Sometimes we’ll even make a quick trip to Starbucks for a cozy hot chocolate. 

These traditions are my favorite because of the quality time it gives me to spend with my family. I’ll forever cherish these moments. Throughout it all, my family continues to bring the holiday spirit, and I can’t wait for winter break to come! I wish you and your loved ones a fantastic holiday season filled with love, joy, and merriment! Happy Holidays!

The Fashion Industry Needs More Female Leaders

By: Laleh Panahi

In high school, my friends and I loved fashion. While we wore uniforms, we expressed our personal style through flowing scarves, vintage jewelry, and thrifted jackets, even if it risked us getting detention for violating the dress code. Some girls at our school wore colorful eyeshadow, other girls online shopped for workout sets during class. Whether you love it or hate it, it is undeniable that fashion and beauty trends maintain a massive presence in our lives as young women. The field of fashion is generally assumed to be associated with women, and from elementary school, we are told that having an interest in it is considered “girly”. As we develop, however, we are warned that fashion is a frivolous and unreliable career path.

It is correct to assume that women play a greater role in the consumption of clothing than men. American women spend 76% more on clothing than men per year, amounting to around $2,000 annually. This doesn’t necessarily mean that all women overspend on clothing or are obsessed with fashion. The way clothing items are presented to each gender diverges greatly.  It is acceptable for men to rewear suits and tuxedos but frowned upon for a woman to rewear her wedding dress. It costs nearly $2 more to dry clean a woman’s shirt than it does for a man’s. There are also more women working in the industry. There are more women graduating from fashion and design school than men, and over 85% of graduates from fashion schools in the US identify as women.

Despite this, the industry continues to be dominated by men. Only 14% of major clothing brands are run by women. Women continuously face challenges in bringing up promotions and there are limited mentorship opportunities available to them. Similar to other fields, married women with children are discriminated against. 

This often goes unnoticed and change is much needed. CDFA chairwoman, Diane Von Fursternberg, states that while sexism in the industry is obvious, it must be talked about so people “can’t pretend it’s not true”. Women need to be recognized for their talent and ambition, and hopefully, the women in our generation will find opportunities for leadership positions in the industry.


Sources: 

https://www.notjustalabel.com/editorial/gender-gap-why-do-men-still-rule-fashion-world

https://rtrshift.com/the-average-american-woman-spends-2000-a-year-to-get-dressed/

https://www.thecut.com/2018/05/study-the-fashion-industry-is-still-run-by-men.html

Marketing Appeal Behind 5th Avenue Windows in NYC During the Holidays

By: Sarah Nagle

It’s almost the holiday season, which means people will soon pack every inch of shopping centers and overload websites, searching for the perfect gifts. Naturally, companies benefit immensely from this season, most notably through increased consumer traffic and the consequent hope of new customers from this large-scale concurrent gift giving. Some stores, however, have further leveraged this seasonal opportunity in hopes of extracting all possible benefits. Specifically, stores located on Manhattan’s 5th Avenue are gifted with a significant locational advantage: 5th Avenue. This iconic street floods with people during the holiday season for two main reasons: shopping in the extravagant shops and visiting the elaborate and, possibly more iconic, window displays. 

In the business world, this expected massive influx of shopping traffic is a marketing goldmine. Your audience will be there, and now it is up to the companies to market their products as best as possible and/or create a holiday-themed display straight out of someone’s wildest dreams. The goal is to create a window display that entices people to walk into the store and purchase their products. Often, these products are blended into the display very conspicuously, thus achieving the goal of failing to be an obnoxious advertisement, while keeping peoples’ attention long enough that they will want to come inside and see more. Below are some example window displays. If you were walking down 5th Avenue and saw these displays, which of these would most influence your shopping behavior?

Tiffany and Co. featuring their iconic blue box

Lord & Taylor Fifth Avenue

Saks Fifth Avenue

Adjusting to the Cold

By: Maggie Reade

This year, Daylight Savings Time ended on Sunday, November 7 at 2 am. When the clocks were set back an hour, we got an extra hour of sleep (yay!) However, the downside to all of this is that we’re also going to get darker winter evenings. Finding ways to stay positive during these times can sometimes be tricky; because of this, I interviewed some of my peers and asked them for some recommendations on how they cope with their “winter funks.” Here are some ways to stay cozy, motivated, and adjust to the darkness on these upcoming chilly nights! 

1.Make some tea! - Amelia

Making tea either in your dorm or in the dining hall is a great way to keep warm. An electric tea kettle is a great buy and bringing mugs and different teas from home is super easy. It's a nice study beverage and super easy to make whenever you want to chill out! A nice chamomile before bed is life-changing, trust me. 

2. Keep your feet warm! - Ava

Keeping your feet warm in the winter is a necessity. Investing in a nice pair of winter boots will leave you with no regrets when you’re walking to class. Wearing uggs to absolutely everything is also a great way to go and highly encouraged. In the dorm, throw on a nice pair of wool socks or wear fuzzy slippers. 

3. Exercise! - Maggie 

Finding some method of movement can be really beneficial for your mental and physical health. It relieves so much stress and leaves you feeling rejuvenated after. It can be such a force to go to the Rec Center because of the cold but it’s so worth it in the long run. Even just going on a walk around campus is perfect as well.  

4. Layers! - Mary  

Layering is an amazing way to retain heat! Whether you're going to class or the dining hall, being prepared for the cold is so much better than taking one step outside and the weather is too cold to function. When you layer properly, you can go out and enjoy the beautiful New England winters that we are so lucky to have here in Amherst! 

Transitioning to the dark, cold days are tough so finding ways to stay warm this winter is a step in the right direction.