Christmas
Ah, Christmas, a time often dominated by endless shopping. It comes from a good place, but we should try make the season less about stuff and more about people.
Weekly Three
HEAR: Woke up with “Weird Little Birthday Girl” by Happyness in my head.
READ: A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens in prose.
VIEW: Where there are people and snow, there are snowball fights. Here are snowball fights in art created anytime between 1400 and 1946.
No. 56: Christmas
Recently, I bought a bunch of Christmas-related stuff. There’s still more to buy. My girlfriend, who is on top of Christmas shopping, eggs me on, “You still need to get [gift] for [person], and buy tickets to [event] with [people].”
“But I’ve already spent so much! I’ve been spending so much money lately!”
“Welp,” she says. “It’s that time of season.”
She’s right. But, wow. Does any truism shine a brighter light on Christmas as a capitalist orgy?
“It’s that time of season, Matt,” says Target, Walmart, Overstock, QVC, T-Mobile, Hulu, and Verizon Wireless.
Yes, it’s that time of season. There is a positive side, of course. For millions of people to be in giving mood is a precious thing. The tradition of parents buying gifts for their children is a sweet one, and giving thoughtful presents to your family, friends, colleagues, partners, (pets?) is a too rare show of love and care. Whether or not more stuff is needed, both children and adults deal with a lot in the course of a year, and to end it with unwrapping some gadget they’ve always wanted is a happiness everyone deserves.
But damn are big companies stoked about that.
So much so, that over the course of many years of marketing, some gifts are simply unacceptable to give, especially when it comes to kids.
Or, rather, some gifts are unacceptable not to give — assuming you love your children. Do you? Do you?
Poor mothers and fathers, how can they satisfy the hopes and dreams of a child who just saw commercials for the NerfBlaster 3000, the Sony Playstation 5, and The Wave skateboard, and now wants them all? These to be added to the running list, which includes the NerfStarcaster Automatic, a Razor scooter, and the MonsterJam RC 4×4, seen on TV the day before.
Some way some how, though, mom and dad will make it work. Sure, dad may have lost his job this year. Yes, mom’s boss has doubled her hours without paying overtime. So what!? Big deal. Do they love their kids or not? They will make sacrifices to get their kid everything he wants for Christmas.
“Beautiful,” says Target.
“Christ-like,” says Walmart.
“God bless you,” says Overstock, with eyes closed solemnly.
“Best parent in the world,” says Nerf.
“So selfless,” says MonsterJam.
If no one takes it on themselves to uphold the idea of Christmas as something more than a material extravaganza, Christmas is nothing more than a material extravaganza, just like if one looks to pop culture for advice on eating healthy, they’ll find themselves ordering Taco Bell instead of McDonalds because . . . rice?
But who am I kidding? The under-tree installations of my childhood were crazy. Lots of video games, RC cars, BB guns, gaming consoles, outdoor toys, etc. It was awesome to wake up, open presents, and spend the rest of the day playing with them.
Still I enjoyed our Christmas Eve dinners at my aunt’s; eating my gramma’s breakfast casserole on Christmas morning and spending the day with her; laying around the house with my family and having nothing to do. I may not have anticipated this family time as much as I did the gifts under the tree, but it wouldn’t have been Christmas without it.
Most can relate, I’m sure. It takes effort to recenter the focus of Christmas on people instead of . . . stuff . . . but it’s an effort we make because it’s that time of year, too — the time to actively combat any person or company who promotes the idea that only by purchasing certain things can we express our love and appreciation for each other.
“Dude, Matt. You’ve only spent, like, $100 on gifts so far. Aren’t you gonna spend a little more? Time is running out,” says Amazon.
“Amazon, please shut up. I’m spending time with my family.”
“But you’ve already spent so much time with them!”
It’s that time of season. ♦
Mailbox
Thanks for the recent article on Pantani, Matt. He was a favorite to win when Armstrong won his first Tour de France. I remember the story well.
Doping . . . it does not mean getting high. A performance enhancing drug does only the enhancing. All cyclists are equal, and should race on an equal playing field.
It was a shame to lose Pantani, a very competitive and winning cyclist. A legend.
- Francisco
Have a question or response? Hit reply. Write-ups and questions from readers will be published here each week