But don't worry, the Black Friday sales are about to happen. And Cyber Monday. All in the few days to squeeze in before the end of the month.

In December, there's Free Shipping Day, and, of course, Boxing Day - the celebration (you might think) of all that Christmas is not meant to be about.

It may seem odd to Australians who associate the "black" tag with bushfires (Black Friday in 1939 and Black Saturday in 2009), but the Black Friday of the sales came from the police in the United States.

They happen after the big Thanksgiving break on the fourth Thursday of November. It's the one time - even more than Christmas - when the country does shut down, so the Friday the day after is the great spending release.

But, according to the marketing consultants Hunt and Hawk, "The term 'Black Friday' was originally coined in the 1960s by police in Philadelphia reporting on traffic congestion". The traffic was jammed because the shops were jammed so the name stuck.

"Cyber Monday" followed because marketers noticed a spike in online sales on the Monday after Thanksgiving. And marketers love to put a catchy phrase to an opportunity.

The internet then pushed trends global. In 2013, according to the consultants, Apple offered its American Black Friday discounts to Australians.

Google gave the bandwagon a big push in 2017 when it offered retailers "Black Friday Promotion Extensions" which let them target offers at potential consumers in the days before Black Friday.

Amazon has also expanded its operations in Australia, and that's promoted a more globalised sense of shopping.

In April, it opened a huge robotised warehouse and distribution centre in western Sydney, trumpeted by the company as "the first of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere".

(But before you moan about global American companies, remember that Westfield did much to homogenise shopping in Europe).

We do.

Spending in shops on Black Friday now exceeds that in the Boxing Day sales, ANZ senior economist Adelaide Timbrell told The Canberra Times.

In 2018 and 2019, we spent more on Boxing Day than we did on Black Friday. Since then, Black Friday has been the bigger revenue generator for the shops (and the bigger emptier of shoppers' bank accounts).

This may be because we moved online during the pandemic. But retailers - shops and stores to you and me - expect this bonanza to continue (though economists are watching to see if this year's Black Friday sales give an indication of a reluctance to spend, presaging the slowdown in the economy).

According to industry estimates, about a quarter of pre-Christmas shopping in Australia is now done on Black Friday and the days immediately after.

Industry magazine Retail World says: "The Black Friday sales are set to provide retailers with strong results in the lead up to Christmas with research from the Australian Retailers Association in collaboration with Roy Morgan forecasting sales to reach a record $6.2 billion over the four-day Black Friday/Cyber Monday weekend."

The Australian Retailers Association, which represents the bigger stores in Australia, is bullish about this year's sales.

"The Black Friday sales are the biggest pre-Christmas event on the retail calendar and its popularity is continuing to grow in Australia," the association's chief executive, Paul Zahra, said.

"After starting off as an American shopping tradition, the Black Friday sales have become a global phenomenon and millions of Aussies are set to take part."

On that, he is right.