The internet means that the perfect Christmas present is just a couple of clicks away - arriving on your doorstep in just a day or two.
But the likes of Black Friday, Amazon and click and collect are relatively new innovations.
In the 1950s and 1960s if you wanted to buy a few gifts then your only choice was to go to the shops - and there were no out-of-town shopping centres to make it convenient.
Instead you’d have to battle into town and head to somewhere like Edinburgh’s Princes Street and George Street, home to huge department stores like Jenners.
If you were really lucky your grocer might have the then new-fangled ‘self service’, meaning you wouldn’t have to queue for an age to get a shop assistant to pick all your prospective purchases from the shelves.
Here are 23 pictures to take you back to Christmas in Edinburgh over half a century ago.
1. Standing room only
Shopper cram in to Blairs Department Store, on Nicholson Street, to do their Christmas Shopping in 1964. Photo: Unknown
2. Room for a little one?
A man with a Christmas tree attempts to get on a bus on the High Street in 1965. Photo: Denis Straughan
3. Pay and display
The Christmas window display at St Cuthberts Co-Operative Association, on Nicolson Street, in 1965. Photo: Albert Jordan
4. Window shopping
A mum and child inspect the Christmas window display at Patrick Thomsons, on North Bridge, in 1965. Photo: Alan Ledgerwood