Commercial Christmas
Christmas not longer has the religious significance it had in the past.
Two months before Christmas the decorations go up, the music starts playing in stores and eventually on the radio, and the advertising blitz moves into high gear. This onslaught of 'Christmas' appeared to start this year around Halloween and seemed to submerge the Thanksgiving Holiday weekend into a respite before the 'Black Friday' shopping day. Thanksgiving appears to have become an opportunity to take a break from shopping for a day in preparation for the marathon last 4 weeks before Christmas.
As the days to Christmas count down the frenzy of shoppers continues, material goods are purchased in every larger and more extravagent quantities (with resulting increases in credit card debt, overextended lines of credit, bounced checks, etc...). The search for the 'perfect gift' gives way to a search for any kind of gift just to fulfill some need to give (and hopefully to receive back as much). Lines get longer and longer, shoppers more desperate and irritable, and then alas the holiday arrives.
Is today's Christmas a celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ? Or is it a day to get stuff, be disappointed about not getting the right stuff, or a preparation time to exchange stuff the next day because it wasn't what you really wanted? I noted this year that the after-Christmas advertising circulars arrived in the 24 December newspaper (allowing me and others to plan 'more' shopping again after-Christmas).
What struck me the most was turning on the radio and all of a sudden, after 2 months of buildup to Christmas, you wouldn't know that the holiday even occured. The Christmas music is gone, replaced by the usual generic music (of whatever genre the station features) and baudy talk shows.
What does Christmas mean to you?
Two months before Christmas the decorations go up, the music starts playing in stores and eventually on the radio, and the advertising blitz moves into high gear. This onslaught of 'Christmas' appeared to start this year around Halloween and seemed to submerge the Thanksgiving Holiday weekend into a respite before the 'Black Friday' shopping day. Thanksgiving appears to have become an opportunity to take a break from shopping for a day in preparation for the marathon last 4 weeks before Christmas.
As the days to Christmas count down the frenzy of shoppers continues, material goods are purchased in every larger and more extravagent quantities (with resulting increases in credit card debt, overextended lines of credit, bounced checks, etc...). The search for the 'perfect gift' gives way to a search for any kind of gift just to fulfill some need to give (and hopefully to receive back as much). Lines get longer and longer, shoppers more desperate and irritable, and then alas the holiday arrives.
Is today's Christmas a celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ? Or is it a day to get stuff, be disappointed about not getting the right stuff, or a preparation time to exchange stuff the next day because it wasn't what you really wanted? I noted this year that the after-Christmas advertising circulars arrived in the 24 December newspaper (allowing me and others to plan 'more' shopping again after-Christmas).
What struck me the most was turning on the radio and all of a sudden, after 2 months of buildup to Christmas, you wouldn't know that the holiday even occured. The Christmas music is gone, replaced by the usual generic music (of whatever genre the station features) and baudy talk shows.
What does Christmas mean to you?
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