Hyper-consumerism Is Guilty Of Taking The Christ Out Of Christmas

[XIX]

Over the years, "Merry Christmas" has been taken out of American pop-vernacular and been replaced with "Happy Holidays." This is problematic to Catholics for obvious reasons. From what litte cable news I remember, Bill O'Reilly, had this whole "Stop the War on Christmas" thing going. But most people sadly gave in to the new default cliche of "Happy Holidays."

The funny thing is, the "Holiday Season" started out as a way not to exclude Hannukah. But what resulted from this is that Hanukkah became known as the "Jewish version of Christmas," which is also problematic to the Jewish faith for a kajillion reasons. Not the least of which is that Judasim, by definition, doesn't have a Christmas. Also, Hanukkah isn't nearly as important on the Jewish calendar as Christmas is on the Christian calendar. [i]Their[/i] key days are Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, yet Hanukkah got vaulted above and beyond those days in terms of notoriety. I don't know a ton about the Jewish faith, but that strikes me as being way off.

Anyways, the "Holiday Season" also created an excuse to invent the Holiday of Kwanzaa. Now I don't really have a problem with that at all--shoot, if African-Americans want their own week, then God bless them. But to put it on the freaking day after Christmas? Kind of a weak way to capitalize on Christ's birth. If you wanted to celebrate your heritage so badly, why not do it in August? Or July?

Then Thanksgiving got thrown in. People are saying "Have a happy holiday" for Thanksgiving now. That one I really don't understand. Is that new? Are we saying this for every holiday now? How about the Fourth of July? Veterans Day? What about [i]Memorial Day?[/i] Or maybe this is just a subtle plot to extend the Buying Season as far and as long as possible. Yeah, probably the latter.

"But not everybody celebrates Christmas." Correct. And not everybody celebrated Valentine's Day. Should we stop celebrating V-Day in an attempt to appease those of us who celebrate Singles Awareness Day? How about those of us who celebrate the feast day that actually takes place on February 14? Maybe the Dateless Wonders should all start a grassroots War on Valentine's Day.

Yet none of this is what bothers me the most about this disturbing "Happy Holidays" trend. What's worst is that every single commercial I see uses that same phrase. Initially, I was mildly annoyed by this and thinking "I guess they don't want to offend too many people, and more people are offended by the presense of Christ than by His coerces absense." And while that's probably enough reason by itself to motivate companies to mute Christ, it's probably not the biggest reason by a long shot.

Christmas is completely essential to the "Season." Without Christ, there would be no Christmas (this is a historical fact that exists completely without regard to whether Jesus actually was the Messiah, by the way.) There would be no Holiday Season. No Jesus, no holidays. Know Jesus, know the holidays.

So when Christ gets taken out of Christmas, something has to fill that void. That something has, overwhelmingly, been presents. Buying stuff. Buying gift cards. Buying cars. Stuff in commercials. Most of it is useless croutons, and most of the useful presents were also useful in October when you bought the item to hold onto for two months.

So the more we talk about the holidays, the more we drown out Christ, and then more people need an alternative purpose to Decebmer 25.

Do you see what's happening here? Corporations have everything to gain by taking Jesus out of Christmas. So, why wouldn't they do their part to make sure it happens?

Of course, it goes way beyond that. The commercials are very clever at implying that consumerism = happiness. They don't come right out and say it, because that would make it way too obvious that what they are trying to tell you it absurd. But they have little messages like "I want to see that smile on the kids' faces." "Give it all. Give the mall." And everybody's favorite, "I never get what I want for Christmas, so this year, I'm going to get [i]myself[/i] a little something." And they are all absurdly good looking people with lot of smiles and perfect families and such. Once we get Christ out of the picture, we look to these images as an ideal for making them happy. Even if we aren't religious, it is in our nature to worship [b]something.[/b]

That is why it is completely essential to make Christ the focal point of, um, [i]Christ[/i]mas. We really don't know what we are missing. Even those of us who sidestep the whole consumerism-on-crack thing, seem to have a lot of trouble refocusing on Christ. It's hard in a world full of everything that's distracting us from Jesus. But:

a) We obviously have His help.
b) We don't have to be perfect. Even the most broken soul can bear fruit when humbly prostrated before the Throne of God. God works through stupid chumps. Shoot, it's all He's done with me my entire life.
c) An Advent truly celebrated for the right reasons has value far beyond pearls and and an X-box and three cups of eggnog.

No Jesus, no happy. Know Jesus, know happy.

Besides, how would you like it if people gave each other presents, ignored you, and said "Happy Holidays" on your birthday? Advent begins this Sunday. Just saying.

[Excelsior1027]

Awesome post!! You put into words what I've been feeling ever since November began. Good insight. Edited November 28, 2008 by Excelsior1027

[Maximilianus]

Well said.

Now lets get rid of that jolly old elf and the minions that work for his corporation in the North Pole.

[Ash Wednesday]

To be honest I kind of wish gift giving could be scaled down or even completely done away with. (I guess I wouldn't want to be THAT cold to my kids if I'm ever able to have any.) But it's not like people go nuts at Easter and that is the holiest day of the year. It's just that when it gets to be more stressful than what the gift giving is worth....there's a problem.

[Maximilianus]

The gift giving has gone out of hand. I have noticed that Easter has become a gift giving holiday as well, gone beyond just giving candy in baskets. The Easter bunny has become the Santa of Spring.
Depressing.

[XIX]

[quote name='Ash Wednesday' post='1713022' date='Nov 28 2008, 06:58 PM']To be honest I kind of wish gift giving could be scaled down or even completely done away with. (I guess I wouldn't want to be THAT cold to my kids if I'm ever able to have any.) But it's not like people go nuts at Easter and that is the holiest day of the year. It's just that when it gets to be more stressful than what the gift giving is worth....there's a problem.[/quote]
Like many good things, gift giving isn't a bad thing. It's when this good thing becomes a false god that we run into trouble.

I think the whole thing has gotten out of hand. According to adventconspiracy.org, Americans spend 450 billion dollars/year on gifts every Christmas. 1,500 dollars per person.

It's definitely not as pronounced at Easter as it is at Christmas. Hyper-con-buy-a-lot-of-croutons-sumerism is a yearround problem though--it just takes a huge shot of crack right around this time every year.

But imagine that--people letting material posessions take control of their lives instead of God. bleh. Satan is really unoriginal.

[eagle_eye222001]

Nice thread Maggie.. er...uh... XIX.

[fides quarens intellectum]

nice OP, XIX

[Mr_Private_Person]

[quote name='XIX' post='1712991' date='Nov 28 2008, 06:09 PM']No Jesus, no happy. Know Jesus, know happy.

Besides, how would you like it if people gave each other presents, ignored you, and said "Happy Holidays" on your birthday? Advent begins this Sunday. Just saying.[/quote]

Thank God that religion has nothing to do with holidays anymore!

[jeffpugh]

lawl.


Great post, XIX.

[Justin86]

[quote name='Mr_Private_Person' post='1713187' date='Nov 29 2008, 11:14 AM']Thank God that religion has nothing to do with holidays anymore![/quote]
Yes, why should religion have anything to do with [b]holy days[/b] throughout the year.

[Mr_Private_Person]

[quote name='Justin86' post='1713247' date='Nov 28 2008, 10:54 PM']Yes, why should religion have anything to do with [b]holy days[/b] throughout the year.[/quote]

Lawl

[jeffpugh]

That's my line

[Mr_Private_Person]

[quote name='Sacred Music Man' post='1713307' date='Nov 28 2008, 11:48 PM']That's my line [/quote]

rolf

[Fidei Defensor]

I think either is acceptable. Merry Christmas, since it's obviously the most prominent holiday at this time of the year. But Happy Holiday's is not wrong, either, if you are intending to wish someone happiness through all the holidays (i.e. Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years.) I don't think it's honestly meant to "take Christ out of Christmas," it's more so a blanket cover for this whole time of year.