Whatever happened to Christmas?
Today (as of writing, September 23), I walked through the grocery store in my town and noticed that Halloween decorations had been installed.
It makes me want to sigh, because the appearance of Halloween festivities means that the stream of "holiday cheer" has started, and it will not stop until Christmas has come and gone, on December 26. In particular, Christmas sees to encroach upon more and more time every year. Why? The answer is simple: Christmas is profitable.
Halloween, it is true, does account for some amount of consumer spending, while Thanksgiving seems to cause far less. Christmas generates far more activity than those two holidays combined! This is reflected in advertising and provides us with a glimpse at the cynical view of American holidays that is held by corporations:
- Halloween can be used to sell costumes to children, and candy gets bought because of it. Not great; not terrible.
- All anyone seems to do for Thanksgiving is buy more food than usual and gather as families. It's more optimal to focus attention on Christmas and Black Friday instead of pushing it.
- Christmas, now devoid of its religious origin and unity of community (more on that later), is the perfect celebration for generating money, because product consumption is intrinsic to the modern "ritual" of the holiday! Not only are decorations and food purchased in large amounts, but everything imaginable, from toys to tools to cookware, are bought, and bought, and bought. Stores will be flooded, websites well-trafficked, postal services overloaded. People will buy, and they can be easily induced to buy more.
This attitude is reflected in the effort given to advertising for each holiday: Halloween sees some attention, but there are only so many things to sell. Thanksgiving relies on goods that everyone seems to know already, so advertising does not actually change much, except to add a "fall flair" to things (and maybe rotate the "pumpkin spice" version of some consumable back into ccontactulation). Christmas advertising, in contrast, has lost its mind; advertisers working under the guise of "the holiday spirit" and a happy "home for the holidays" labor ceaselessly to sell everything that can be bought. We consumers eat it up, too- for Christmas spending is astronomical, but the quieter things of the holiday are completely neglected.
If we neglect our duty, men will be not only contented but transported by the mixed novelty and familiarity of snowdrops this January, sunrise this morning, plum pudding this Christmas. Children, until we have taught them better, will be perfectly happy with a seasonal round of games in which conkers succeed hopscotch as regularly as autumn follows summer.
-C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters
The demons' duties have not been neglected. Humans are now so alienated from their environment (and from each other) that Christmas contains no simplicity, no contentedness. There is hardly any joy left in it. The message of Christ's birth (either vestigial or crucial, depending on your bent) has been virtually erased. The time of unity with one's community has gone away. There are no more carol-singers, no happy conversations in the streets, no neighborhood kids playing in the snow. Instead of hymns, we get utterly empty songs (All I Want for Christmas is You would be a decent example). Instead of joy with fellow men, we get a mumbled "Happy Holidays" at the supermarket. Even the joy in gift-giving (sadly, the wrapped parcel is really the symbol of Christmas now) is slowly and steadily being taken and replaced by voracious consumption. When we say "Merry Christmas," we really mean, "Your holiday is dilapidated, your family unhappy, your values debased. Fill the void by opening some boxes and eating some food."
But it doesn't fill the void, and it doesn't make anyone happier. The expansion of advertising related to Christmas only cheapens the holiday further and make people sick of the idea of celebrating Christmas by the arrival of the holiday. Every year, I become a little more apprehensive about Christmas. It must be better to be predisposed with a holiday for two weeks than two months. And as much as I wish that things would quiet down, that the old nostalgic sights and smells would return, and that the secular rot within the holiday would slow (or stop), I cannot stop it. Christmas is Christ's Mass no longer, at least to social America; all I can do is attempt to better things within my own sphere of influence (my family). I hope that you will do the same. Please be mindful of what you think, do, and buy as Christmas approaches. In that way, perhaps you can make things a little simpler and a little happier for yourself.
Finally, I hope that you will really enjoy your Christmas, but only when it is really time. And the same holds true for Thanksgiving, or whatever else: eat, drink, and enjoy your family, yet do not forget that the holiday was made for you, and not the other way around.