Op-Ed on Xmass

The week of Christmas, during a present wrapping session, I was asked why I "hated Christmas?"  I was at some loss to respond at first. I do not "hate" Christmas but I am not wild about the invasive marketing and commercialization of all American holidays that has increased with intensity every year since i became aware of it sometime in my adolescence.

It is my view that the spirit of the holiday is about hope and sacrifice, at least for the Christians.  It marks the birth of the God/man/rabbi that the people of Abraham were preordained to crucify in some sadistic and masochistic symbolism to atone for what the Christians perceive as Man's original sin, disobedience.  It also, from a Christian perspective, added an addendum to the contract Abraham has signed with his God.


Sidenote - I am aware that there are other holidays observed during or near this time period by members of other Faiths but I was raised Christian and that tradition has colored my views and tinted my perceptions of the back and forth that occurs at the end of each calendar year in America.  That said, let me continue.


I have no problem with the religious aspect of the holiday.  I do have an issue with the commercialization of the holiday.  America is a mass marketed society, I understand that.  But that mass market approach seems to have taken every belief, every superstition, every aspect of cultural sentimentality and twisted it into a marketing campaign aimed at making the consumer (me and people like me) equate their commercial participation in the American economy as a public testimonial of their active participation in the realization of the spirit of said holiday.  Each season it seems I encounter more and more individuals who do not accept a verbal expression of holiday spirit as a genuine token of that spirit.  It is no longer an adequate expression of the holiday to gather in large groups, feast, trade stories and acknowledge the recognized birth event of the God/man/rabbi unless there is the exchange of impersonal mass manufactured goods wrapped in traditional colors.

That is what I hate about the end of December. 

Of course, my wife vehemently disagrees with me.  For her the nature of the gift is not important.  What is important is the gift itself and the gesture the gift represents, it demonstrates that you have taken a moment out of your normal existence to think about this person.  And she sees that act as being the embodiment of the holiday theme.

I don't know that she is wrong.  Maybe i am just a cynic, but if I am a follower of the God/man/rabbi's teachings, shouldn't I strive to be mindful of the condition of my neighbor everyday.  And if I do strive for such a goal, is it romantic nonsense to hope that such a choice will be recognized by my neighbor, thereby doing away with the need for an annual demonstration?Complicating any esoteric interpretation of the holiday is the secular reality that is Christmas.  Mass Media has adopted and currently markets the "Meaning of Christmas" with celluloid morality tales and advertising their holiday sincerity by draping their storefronts with images taken from a multitude of religious and cultural traditions that have come to represent Christmas for many Americans.  How does one keep the secular aspects of the holiday separate from the non-secular.  With the omnipresent marketing via audible, visual and aromatic stimulation, what hope does a person have in maintaining a firm boundary between the spiritual aspects of the holiday and the commercial. Should an individual embrace a tale of fellowship, such as that found in "Rudolph and the Island of Misfit Toys", but reject the post tale marketing of the characters and sets of the tale that are constantly manufactured?


Sidenote - Question; By exchanging mass manufactured products during the holiday, have we, as a society, devalued the older tradition of exchanging hand-made items?  If you received a gift that was of dubious quality but had been created, designed, made, by the giver - do you value that gift less or more or no differently than you would say a gift card for Lowe's or a sweater from J.Crew?


It is funny, but as I write this I have realized something.  I am leaving out something in my response to the original question.  There is no simple and pat answer but also in the mix I should note that at some point over the past few years I started to resent the expectation I perceive that I must spend a certain amount of money per person on my list.  I resent that I must make a list of select people that will receive a gift, excluding others and I hate that the number of people on that list is influenced by how much money I have set aside or have on hand. 

I want a better, more inclusive way to celebrate the birth of the God/man/rabbi that will free me from secular guilt and the taint of commercial exploitation.  Anyone have any ideas?