Everyone will be familiar with the last-minute panic of trying to find the perfect Christmas gift and frantically rushing to the shops.
This year is no different as shoppers have taken to the streets across the UK to stock up on what they need with just two days to go.
But since the bustling heydays of the 1980s and 1990s, Britain’s ailing high streets have fallen into disrepair and many now languish on the brink of total collapse as business dries up.
Once vibrant shopping areas, bustling with visitors and shops, have been transformed into depressing ghost towns, with empty shops boarded up for years.
Plummeting traffic has left city centers struggling to survive, as more and more Britons rely on online shopping rather than old-fashioned window shopping.
The circumstances are so dire that they have led once-iconic high street giants such as Woolworths, Debenhams and Wilkos to close for good, with thousands of jobs lost.
Meanwhile, as the country’s retailers continue to feel the pressure, other companies have sought to reduce their store numbers.
Nostalgic photographs from the 1980s and 1990s at Christmas paint a totally different view of the country’s crowded urban centres.
It seems the last minute shopper never learns as Brits always make a last minute rush to the shops. Pictured: Oxford Street in 1993.
Fascinating images unearthed from the 1990s and 1980s show the last-minute Christmas shopping rush. Pictured: Bargain hunters at Woolworths in Holyhead
But now it’s not the same. with a photograph taken last week in Evesham showing the shopping center virtually empty just days before Christmas.
It was spend, spend, spend at Marks and Spencer on Christmas Eve 1993.
They show bustling crowds in London’s Oxford Street and Hamleys Toy Store frantically trying to do their shopping.
Meanwhile, shoppers at Selfridges can be seen forming an organized queue to buy the new Spice Girls dolls in 1997, while a similar queue can be seen forming outside Toys ‘R Us in Brent Cross that year.
And it’s not just London: large gatherings can be seen on the streets of Liverpool, Manchester and Glasgow in a last-minute rush to the high street.
Despite the rise in online shopping and dismal conditions in some of the country’s urban centres, shoppers appeared to remain active this festive season in London and other major cities.
But the story was less rosy in some of the UK’s shopping centres. Evesham’s Riverside Shopping Center looked empty last week.
MailOnline visited the site over the weekend, and with just four days left until Christmas, there only seemed to be a handful of buyers.
Local resident Sheron Annis, 76, said: ‘I have lived in Evesham for 72 years and it is very, very sad. This place is an absolute disaster.
Large gatherings can be seen on the streets of Liverpool, Manchester and Glasgow (pictured, 1994).
Footage shows bustling crowds on London’s Oxford Street and Hamleys Toy Store (pictured, 1992).
Shoppers take advantage of round-the-clock shopping at the Tesco hypermarket in Brent Cross in the early hours of the morning
But this week in Evesham, the town’s shopping center seemed empty. Of more than 40 units, only three are open: Home Bargains, a small mobile phone store and the cafeteria.
At Evesham shopping centre, residents say there are now more pigeons than shoppers
WATERLOOVILLE: Footfall has plummeted in the Hampshire town, once a bustling hub for locals. Now it looks as if it has been abandoned.
WATERLOOVILLE: Boarded-up Wellington Way shopping center just off main street
Liverpool’s Cavern Walks saw many shop windows on December 3, 1984
‘You can’t even use the bathrooms anymore. They have locked them up. “It’s a shame for the city.”
Of more than 40 units, only three are open: Home Bargains, a small mobile phone store and the cafeteria.
The central feature is now a roped-off area under the domed glass roof where strategically placed buckets collect water when it rains.
There is a pennant with the Union flag, but no one quite remembers which Jubilee it was put up for. When it opened in 1988, this privately owned center was thriving.
The faded sign on the outside wall reads: “Men’s Clothing, Food, Children, Footwear, Health and Beauty, Sports and Outdoors, Cafe, Women’s Clothing, Confectionery, Homewares, Gifts and Accessories, Fashion, Music and electricity, variety”.
Thousands of people watch the switching on of the Christmas lights on Church Street, Liverpool in 1986
Oxford Street has always been the ideal place for Christmas shopping, but not if you want to avoid the crowds. Photographed in 1993
Switching on the Christmas lights at Broad Street Mall, Reading, in 1998
Terry Wogan switches on the Christmas lights on Oxford Street in 1998
Now there are only boarded up shops and cubes.
Residents of the city, considered the saddest in Britain, have been caught between laughter and tears.
“It’s been bad for years,” Sheron added. ‘My granddaughter is now 12 years old, but when she was younger she used to say: ‘Can we go to the Center and count the cubes?’
‘Evesham has gone to the dogs. It used to be prosperous but little by little it has been disappearing and the young people have nothing to do.
‘We have a leisure center but not everyone can afford it and we see a lot of vandalism. “It’s heartbreaking.”
Pointing to the cordoned off area, a local said: ‘We used to have a fountain there. Now we have a fountain every time it rains’
It’s a similar story in the Hampshire town of Waterlooville, near Portsmouth.
Its main street has been hit by shop closures, and the once vibrant shopping area is now a shadow of its former self.
Meanwhile, in leafy Banbury, Oxfordshire, locals say their town center has faltered a bit, with empty shops blighting the main street.
Hamleys toy store is a staple for Christmas shopping in London. Photographed in 1992
It’s packed inside, and this is after queuing to get in first. Pictured: Queues outside Hamleys in 1993
Young children stare wide-eyed at Fenwick’s window display in November 1987.
Christmas shopping on Market Street next to the Arndale Center in Manchester in 1986
A very nostalgic image shows shoppers queuing to buy the new Teletubby dolls outside Toys R Us in Brent Cross, London, 1997.
But in Banbury (pictured) earlier this year, residents said their high street had fallen on hard times with shops closing and remaining derelict.
Shoppers on Oxford Street in 1983 with bags full of clothes and Christmas shopping
Christmas shoppers at Selfridges on Oxford Street waiting for the chance to buy the new Spice Girl dolls in 1997
Church Street in Liverpool on December 7, 1993 appears in the nostalgic set of images.
Christmas shopping at Owen Owen department store in Coventry, with gift packs of toiletries and perfumes popular