It’s easy to think that something has gone horribly wrong when Brenda Lee belts the opening lines to “Jingle Bell Rock” right after “Monster Mash” stops spinning at midnight on Nov. 1.
Every year, the Christmas season cannibalizes another week or two in October or November, and is met with cries and lamentations from the American people. This phenomenon has been dubbed “Christmas creep”—the proclivity for department stores, television stations and radio broadcasters to throw up the tree and pull out the holly before the Thanksgiving turkey is cooked.
Despite the holiday season being one giant celebration of food, merriment and gifts, people seem to really hate this.
There are the usual arguments:
Christmas brings out the worst in people. This point is often made with a reference to some incident of Black Friday violence—a woman maced some people in a Wal-Mart, or Arnold Schwarzenegger fights with Sinbad for a Turbo Man doll.
But an estimated 152 million people braved the crowds and their own sleep schedules to shop on Black Friday this year. While several dozen instances of completely inadmissible violence were reported, most people behaved lawfully. In fact, there are instances of friendships being forged in the long lines snaking around the aisles of Wal-Marts and Sears. Christmas isn’t the culprit in Black Friday violence—blame bad management and the riot mentality.
It’s all just a way for big corporations to squeeze more money out of our warm woolen pockets. Christmas, in truth, is a huge boost to the economy. More than a quarter of all consumer goods are purchased in November and December, and that doesn’t account for the gift cards that many people get for Christmas and hold onto until January. There’s a simple way for people who despise the consumerism to avoid it: Don’t buy anything.
Christmas pushes religion down non-Christian throats. America is somewhere between 60 and 79 percent Christian. The non-religious account for another 15 to 38 percent, Jews account for about 2 percent, and about 0.6 percent of Americans are Muslim. Should all of those non-Christians have to suffer through a dogmatic two months every year? No.
Good thing Christmas is almost secular.
Modern Christmas in America is very much about gifts, family and tradition, and not very much about Jesus. Aside from a few overplayed songs about the birth of Christ (we’re looking at you, “Little Drummer Boy”) and Linus’s “lights, please” speech on A Charlie Brown Christmas, this has become a very non-religious season.
The most popular traditions—Christmas trees, poinsettias, the red suited and jelly bellied interpretation of Santa—are derived from secular origins, and religious scholars still debate whether the historical figure Jesus was born in December. Those who complain about spotting religious stuff in early November are usually complaining about the bells and red boughs that show up in stores, and those are hardly religious.
It’s unfortunate that some let these things ruin the splendor of Christmas. There is something magical about it. At a time when popular politicians can not only get away with telling the poorest Americans to get jobs and fend for themselves, but to receive support for those statements, Christmas stands out as a time when Americans actually care about other Americans.
Food pantries receive more money and volunteers, shoppers pick out and donate gifts to children they’ll never meet and people happily give what they do not need to the less fortunate. That is the spirit of Christmas.
The earlier that starts in the year, the better.
