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‘Tis the season of holiday exploitation, tidings of daunting commercialism and a flow of overwhelming advertising. The façade of Christmas joy and celebration continues to surface as Americans are bombarded with false claims of the true meaning of Christmas.
Christmas is the holiday celebrated by the majority of Americans for reasons that are evidently uncertain. It is debated whether the holiday is secular or religious. Religious fanatics have criticized society for accepting a secular viewpoint and straying away from religious roots of the celebration. Similarly, secular society seems to think there is far too much religion involved in Christmas. Yet the federal government contends that it is still an official holiday.
The issue becomes whether we are celebrating the birth of Jesus, the cornerstone of the Christian religion, or commemorating a national holiday which expresses the continuously growing abundance of material wealth.
“No one was really in the habit of exchanging elaborate gifts until late in the 1800s,” said Marshall Brian, the founder of howstuffworks.com. “The Santa Claus story, combined with an amazing retailing phenomenon that has grown since the turn of the century, has made gift-giving a central focus of the Christmas tradition.”
Then, in 1867, Macy’s department store stayed open until midnight on Christmas Eve and in 1874 featured the first set of Christmas-themed window displays. Other industries followed and by the turn of the 20th century, the popularity of Christmas had grown substantially.
The economic boom involving the middle class has allowed the majority of Americans to spend and consume exponentially. Americans treat themselves with video game systems, tropical vacations and cashmere sweaters, and then hail praise to Santa Claus. Sometimes, just for kicks, Jesus is included too.
The once religious-based holiday has become an economic necessity for America. Companies prosper or falter during this time of the year. Sales on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving and the biggest shopping day of the year, can determine whether a company ends up in the black or the red for the year.
Moreover, parents bicker, vying for the toy they must buy for their children. It sometimes seems toy companies limit their products in order to increase the demand that leads to quarrels over plastic.
Kids boast of gifts received from family and friends, as they compete against one another in a battle of one-upmanship. The one with the most toys wins.
The three wise men gave precious gifts to the newborn Jesus for they knew he was the son of God. Today, parents give their kids dolls and worthless talking plastic to keep them from making a fuss. The similarity is quite distorted.
Give the kid a toy to keep them quiet, and peace will prevail.
Has Christmas become the act of over-consumption only to satisfy the selfish, materialistically driven society we live in? Belatedly, the praise is paid to Christ (the origin of the holiday), like Christmas dinner leftovers.
The abolishment of Christmas due to its unholy ways had ended and riding a new wave of reformation, Christmas was reborn.
In 1870, with the declaration of Christmas as a federal holiday, it signified that Christmas would remain an integral segment of life for most Americans.
William Sydney Porter, the author of “The Gift of the Magi,” moralizes that material possessions may be valuable, but the value of love for one another is far more meaningful. Other tales, such as “The Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens, emphasize the good nature and family involved with Christmas. Both tales, along with other cultural clutches, intensified the meaning of Christmas and brought it back to celebration.
Christmas is currently a marketing ploy that, like much of America, features an abundance of wealth, but a lack of value. Christmas is a holiday intended to celebrate love, life and family, not consumerism and financial prosperity.
Americans now celebrate the holiday only to celebrate themselves and what they already have, instead of giving to those in need and fully appreciating the value and meaning of Christmas. It is a celebration intended to honor the life of Jesus Christ and what he gave for his people, not to celebrate the life of our shopping malls and wallets. Americans will only continue to encourage these false and negative traditions unless we seek to understand the true meaning of Christmas and learn to make a change in how we think and how we celebrate this holiday.
Make a change, or continue down the path of our self righteous and gluttonous ways?
I wonder what Jesus would do.
Emory Williamson is a sophomore majoring in communication. E-mail him at ewilliamson@louisvillecardinal.com
