The holidays come earlier and earlier every year. We just barely finish Halloween and suddenly the populace is hit with a barrage of commericals of Christmas music, Christmas sales and Christmas memories. What is the fascination with shoving Christmas down our throats almost two months before the actual holiday?
In reality, Christmas is just another consumer-driven holdiay that gets us out of school for about a month and lifts the weight in our wallets because we buy useless junk for people we don’t really like in the first place. What is the big deal? Can’t we enjoy the other holidays that encompass this three-month package known affectionately as “the holidays?”
Come on, Halloween is a great holiday. We’re allowed to dress up and pretend to be someone we’re not. Then we have Thanksgiving. We are allowed, for one day, to stuff our faces with turkey and watch family members try to cook.
But can we enjoy this time? No, because we are too busy dodging Christmas ad bullets. And the problem is getting worse. Even before October began, evening television shows were airing commericals advertising “Bing Crosby sings the Classic Christmas Collection.”
We haven’t even decided on a costume yet and already that man is crooning “White Christmas.” Please. Each holiday has its own month, but it seems Christmas has bled over into November and October. It will not have September as well.
If Christmas continues to grow we won’t have any other holidays at all. We will spend the other 364 days preparing for that one capitalist’s dream day. Easter and St. Patrick’s Day will cease to exist. They will become ordinary days devoted to shopping for that perfect Christmas gift.
Christmas is no longer a day celebrating peace and good will to men. It is a lucrative business venture that reaps great rewards for every good (and bad) boy and girl.
The magic of Santa Claus has become a parent writing out a fat check to toy stores. The anticipation of that exciting morning is beaten senseless by endless sales and ads reminding, no, clobbering people with the knowledge that Christmas is coming.
Perhaps if Christmas ads were restricted to just December we would have a chance to appreciate the season.
Yes, ads for the holiday should only be in December. Christmas is at the end of the month for heavens sake, that gives every store an entire month to advertise their endless sales and perfect gifts.
But that might not do any good because the hypocrisy of what Christmas has become is almost laughable.
Do most people even know why we put up trees in our homes? Probably not. They only are worried about what is going under that evergreen plant in the living room.
We spout all this peace and love nonsense and put up Nativity scenes in our homes and say patronizing things like “the reason for the season.” Yeah, right. You know what the reason for the season is now? Capitalism. Plain and simple.
That is why are we so anxious to open our checkbooks to Pier 1, to listen to Bing Crosby on overpriced CDs or to see our relatives open that salad shooter.
We want to remember the reason for the season, but we end up paying for that reason earlier every single year.