I have fond memories of a few malls from the 1980s when I was a kid. My parents used to take me at a young age and as I got older we did the “meet up here at X o’clock” thing. I learned some life lessons about shopping, money, society and the rest. Some of my favorites were Waldenbooks and B. Dalton, any comic book store, Kay-Bee Toys and the music stores. I remember buying 45 rpm singles until the tide turned to cassettes.
Plus at Christmas time it had a magical feel, when the big name department stores would decorate to the nines and the malls would do their bit in the center areas.
I think I was in a mall maybe five or six years ago because of poor planning on my part at Christmas. It was my first visit to a mall in years and it was a miserable experience because very little of the above remained.
The fact is I don’t buy that much anymore, Amazon and other online stores are often superior in price and convenience for much of what I do need, and society has coarsened and devolved. That’s why malls are now a fondly remembered “thing of the past” for me.
Now, other than the Santa area, it's pretty boring.
Just no Christmasy feel.
For quite a number of years, I took my elderly mother to Woodfield at Christmas. Just to get a coffee or hot chocolate and Cinnabon, and sit near the center of the mall and watch the people go buy. Last year we didn't go to Woodfield, went to a couple of other, smaller malls. None felt like Christmas.
Christmas has become nothing but selling stuff. No real decorating. No Christmas spirit.