To those who will not be cowed by fanatical Christmas-ism, I say, stand strong.
Millions of Americans, still on Turkey hangovers, stood in line outside of superstores like Wal-Mart and Target at 6 am last Friday. The Polar Express was released in early November and Starbucks was serving Christmas drinks in Christmas cups weeks ago. It seems Christmas is rapidly becoming the new Valentines Day–– an exercise in over commercialization.
Don’t misread me, I’m not a grinch, I enjoy the Christmas season as much as the next person, but I think that it is impossible to not notice the absurd entity it is becoming. It is as if Christmas is not a reason to spend money, but instead an excuse. Between massive sales, bargain shopping and exploitation of the holiday to market products, Christmas becomes a sales technique, the ultimate tie-in deal.
Apart from the religious aspect of Christmas, it is not, in principle, entirely unlike Thanksgiving. Ideally, both holidays are meant to be times to reflect on the past year among close friends and family. However, by the fact that Christmas season–– which starts earlier every year–– begins in mid-November now, Thanksgiving has been devalued.
Christmas, if you think about it, is the only holiday that is celebrated for weeks at a time. People may carve pumpkins a few days before Halloween, or buy illegal firecrackers a week before the Fourth of July, go to church more before Easter, and in some places consume more chemicals leading up to the Summer Solstice, but there is no match for the marathon of Christmas.
The primary difference is, of course, the mass commercial and material circus that engulfs this time of year, against which we are apparently helpless. We open our wallets for anything green and red or with illustrated reindeer. Retail stores spend the whole of the year preparing their supply chains and outlets to handle the traffic of the holiday and still sell out their entire inventory. We are incredibly obsessed with gifts, which is not a terrible thing in itself, but needs to be acknowledged.
Then there are the Christmas secret police. We all know them. They are people like my roommate who, unannounced in the middle of the night, hang tinsel and holly and then call you a Scrooge or a Grinch for not joining in. They are clearly the descendants of those who named names to HUAC, attempting to bully us into submission through intimidation, peer and societal pressure.
To those who will not be cowed by fanatical Christmas-ism, I say, stand strong. It is possible to love the holiday season, snow, gingerbread, the North Pole, Rudolph and hot chocolate and still notice the frenzy. For those driving the expansion, nay imperialism, of Christmas, I ask you to acknowledge it to yourself. It is not a problem to give gifts, everyone loves giving and receiving them. However, if you want to see Christmas celebrated year round, stop pretending that the hoopla you promote is somehow part of the holiday. Once you’ve done that, paint yourself in red and green and watch Elf, while shopping online to your heart’s content.
We should either admit that Christmas is a sham and just have fun with it, or take it seriously as a holiday. Either is acceptable. It just doesn’t make sense to feed the commercial inferno while pretending there is somehow great meaning to the season.
To avoid hypocrisy, I want to use this opportunity to ask all my friends to refrain from buying me a gift this year–– there’s nothing that I truly need. Instead, donate to charity or food banks, or save your money for my birthday on December 29th.