A PROBLEM AND ITS SOLUTION -- BUNDLED TOGETHER -- JUST FOR YOU!

By Edwin Cooney

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I hear the complaint every year and I suspect that you do, too. It’s about the “over-commercialization” of Christmas. I occasionally hear complaints about the over-commercialization of Mother’s Day and Valentine’s Day, but the over-commercialization of Christmas is a complaint that has become downright chronic.

Over-commercialization of a holiday means that its celebration is more about commerce than it is about the sincerity of love and the act of giving. I understand that -- but what’s behind that complaint, I wonder!

Going back to childhood, I was taught that we celebrate Christmas as the birthday of Jesus Christ and that we exchange gifts as we would if we could have given gifts to Baby Jesus. I was also instructed that such gift giving was meaningful as long as I kept in mind that Jesus was the center of the love behind it. Yet every year, I hear people who have received that same Christian message complaining about Christmas’ over- commercialization.

Due to its British origin, Christmas wasn’t widely celebrated in America immediately after the Revolutionary War. However, in 1822, Clement Moore’s “A Visit from St. Nicholas” began the popularization of Santa Claus in America. In the 1840’s, Americans became sympathetic with the Christmas plight of Charles Dickens’ Cratchit family. Yet, it wasn’t until the 1850’s that merchants in Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Cincinnati (cities with German and other ethnic populations) really began celebrating Christmas.

Although Christmas was celebrated at the White House in 1805 by Thomas Jefferson
and, in later years, by Andrew Jackson, Christmas apparently didn’t catch on at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue until the Christmas season of 1856. That’s when President Franklin (Handsome Frank) Pierce set up the first executive mansion Christmas tree. It was the last presidential Christmas for Franklin and Jane Pierce and the Christmas tree was something of a gift for President Pierce’s Sunday school class.

Ultimately, Christmas was endorsed by America’s first families. In 1870, Christmas became a federal holiday under Ulysses S. Grant. In 1789, President Benjamin Harrison was the first to put candles on the executive mansion Christmas tree. (President Harrison was scared to death of electric lights.) In 1893, First Lady Frances Cleveland, who wasn’t afraid of electricity, installed the first electric lights on the presidential Christmas tree. In 1923, Calvin Coolidge lit the first “national” Christmas tree.

One might observe that although the celebration of Christmas was originally of British, Dutch and German origin, we Americans inevitably made it our own celebration. As the biggest producers, marketers and consumers on this planet, Americans have made Christmas -- whatever it has become -- ultimately the product of the purest democracy.

Insofar as this observer is aware, Christmas hasn’t been forced on anyone rich or poor, religious or nonreligious, capitalist or socialist. Still, people believe that Christmas has become over-commercialized.

Part of the reason for this has to do, I think, with our belief that our religious and spiritual values should always be supreme over our material values. Then there’s the belief that our religious or spiritual values are vulnerable to our greed for material items such as good clothes, cars, computers, food and, of course, drink.

Another factor is perhaps the belief that the majority of the Christmas presents given in the Nineteenth century were made by hand. In comparison with the gifts we give today, they represented a higher degree of personal awareness, sharing and appreciation. Homemade gifts such as scarves, socks, sweaters, handmade jewelry, and ceramic ware have a special value because their design and construction represent personal knowledge of the recipient on the part of the giver. On the other hand, the scarves, socks, sweaters and manufactured jewelry which are purchased -- beautiful, comfortable and valuable as they may be -- often take second place to the personally designed gift.

Finally, there does exist the ugly head of peer pressure—-the expectation that at Christmastime we must participate in gift giving. Hence, we often put pressure on ourselves to give. To the degree that we feel compelled -- rather than free -- to give, Christmas becomes a personal tyranny. The belief that some entity outside our comfort or control has a hold on us enables us to believe that we are the victims rather than the masters of Christmas. Since the goal of commerce is profit making, over-commercialization is a powerful charge against the way we in America celebrate Christmas.

At the bottom of it all, however, lies the real problem: you and me! Anxious as we all are to demonstrate our love and to receive love from others, we worry about our adequacy and look for scapegoats when we feel inadequate.

So, the question is: What do we do about the over-commercialization of Christmas? The solution is simple: ignore it! It doesn’t exist! Love others as intensely and as genuinely as you can the year ‘round and what you can do at Christmas will adequately reflect the best of who you are!

You’ve got 51 weeks to get over your concern about the over-commercialization of Christmas.

READY! GET SET! GO!

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,
EDWIN COONEY