This article originally published in Self-Service World magazine, Dec. 2007.
Is Santa really making a list? Checking it twice? Chances are, this year you're making your own list.New online list-makers and gift-giving kiosks in retail outlets are changing the white-bearded face of Christmas to the LCD screen of self-service. Now that these self-service present planners, once reserved for wedding and baby registries, have made their foray into the Christmas realm, what are Santa and his elves doing?
Self-Service World tracked down the jolly old elf to ask about the changes in giving wrought by self-service technolÂogy. We found the quintessential Claus as cheerful as ever.
In response to my hard-hitting, Anderson-Cooper-like barrage of questions on the self-service subject, Santa simply replied, "Ho, ho, ho."
On the upside, new electronic ways to manage gift giving may mean an end to endless lines of holiday shoppers waiting to purchase gifts, return unwanted gifts or give a shopping mall Santa their list. (BTW, he says just e-mail him.)
But the biggest irony in the increasing array of self-service offerings for consumers during the biggest retail season of the year is that more self-service is helping people become less self-serving. There now are more ways to give to others than ever before.
"If self-service can make people less selfish and more generous, I'm all for it," Santa said.
One example of this newfound charity is gift cards. While the National Retail Federation isn't predicting the brightest Christmas giving season ever this year, one gift increases in popularity each December — the gift card. According to a recent CBS News story, 52 percent of Americans plan to give a gift card this holiday season. Other statistics indicate that 52.8 percent of people want gift cards for Christmas. So this should provide a lovely yuletide symbiosis.
Another example of increased benevolence is on the Web. For those looking to avoid mall parking messes and crowds of grumpy gift-givers and package mailers, shopping online continues to provide a preferable alternative.
All this freed-up time is making an impact not only among consumers — the least harried through the holidays that they've been in years — it also is creatÂing a calming effect at the North Pole. There, the toy workshop has become nearly dormant for most of the year — its business given over largely to items made elsewhere, such as the electronic games and gadgets that now are the most prominent on Christmas lists.
All this hasn't upset Santa as you may expect, however. He says he realizes that enabling consumers to give for themselves not only eases his load at Christmas, it perpetuÂates the generosity that created the gift-giving tradition of the holiday in the first place. And it offers him more free time to watch his HDTV.
"I like TV," he said.
Yes, but what about the elves, you ask? Several were contacted for this column but were too busy playing video games.
