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What Last-Minute Christmas Shopping Looked Like 70 Years Ago

Hayley PetersonDec 24, 2014, 00:28 IST

In the final days before Christmas every year, malls are bustling with shoppers who have waited until the last minute to purchase holiday gifts.

This tradition has been going on for decades. Check out these photos from 1946, which show hundreds of shoppers gathering outside Macy's Herald Square in New York City on Christmas Eve.

Nearby, this shopper is attempting to hail a cab with his daughter after purchasing a rocking horse.

He didn't appear to be having much luck.

Macy's Herald Square had just completed a $400 million makeover at the time that the photos were taken.

Frances Corless and her daughter "Chickie" (below) were among Macy's shoppers on Christmas Eve. They left the store with their hands full.

Across the street, sidewalks were bustling with shoppers.

Here's a look inside the Macy's Herald Square store 20 years later during the holiday shopping season in 1966, where "Roberta the Robot" demonstrates an electric carving knife to shoppers.