The Essence of Christmas Relived

First, I would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a truly prosperous new year. As I sit here tonight watching “A Christmas Story,” I cannot help but think of the true meaning of Christmas. One word best sums up Christmas in 2006: consumerism. Americans have turned this truly religious holiday into a rampant binge of consuming billions and billions of dollars of pure crap. Obviously Christmas has not always consisted of standing in line at your local Wal-Mart fighting vying for a limited number of Playstations or going to bed at 7PM in the hopes that Santa Clause did not pass up your house. So what in the hell happened to celebrating the birth of Christ?

The first evidence of Christmas turning into “Consumeras” occurred in 1822 when a poem entitled “A Visit from Saint Nicholas” was penned by Clement Clarke Moore. In his poem, Moore emphases exchanging gifts to help the spirit of Christmas prosper. I am sure that his intentions were noble, but no one could have predicted what Christmas would turn into. Now such super retail giants like Wal-Mart, Target, JC Penny’s, Macy’s, and countless other chains rely on holiday season to increase their profits ten fold. Even stores like Pet Smart publicize massive ad campaigns cater to owners of dogs and cats to buy more crap for their beloved pets.

Instead of spending time with our families and those we love, going to church, or even taking it easy, we now froth at the mouth when shopping season begins. I would not be surprised to learn that more people have heart attacks at this time of the year than any other. I would have a heart attack if I had to buy “my woman”(praise the lord I am single and loving it) a $10K dollar diamond ring from Kay Jewelers, as they tend to run a rather sappy ad campaign in the attempt to con people into buying their merchandize. As we get older the spirit of Christmas tends to diminish, as another fact of getting older includes becoming cheaper and conceded (welcome to my world).

I am sure that most of us can recall those days of when we were youngsters and we could not wait to get up at 7AM and see what “Jolly Old Saint Nick” brought us. Now all I want for Christmas is to sleep until noon (the joys of not having kids or young kids around!). I am simply baffled as to why people want to spend hours upon hours in a godforsaken shopping mall to spend money? What is it worth? Trying to buy your loved ones love? The concept sickens me. Now I can see why Scroucge despised Christmas. Granted, I am not exactly a church going man, but at least I make an appearance and understand the original objective of Christmas.