MoneyWatch

Christmas Is All About Selling

By Geoffrey James

Updated on: December 24, 2008 / 9:27 AM EST / MoneyWatch

I don't want to disappoint everyone, but all this endless talk about "commercialism" ruining Christmas is just so much BS. Christmas, as an official holiday, was always about consumerism. It was commercial from day one. Here are the facts:

Christmas was never a religious holiday. For centuries, the church (both protestant and catholic) frowned upon Christmas because (prior to its transformation in the mid-19th century into a consumer holiday) Christmas it was a time of temporary social upheaval. Originally, celebrations typically consisted of lowlifes standing outside your house "caroling" until you gave them money or food to get them to go away. If you didn't, you got your house trashed. In the New England theocracy of the 17th and 18th centuries, it was actually illegal to celebrate Christmas.
Santa Clause was always an advertising gimmick. The first appearance of Santa Claus as a recognizable entity was in a newspaper ad for toys and "gift books" in the mid 19th century. By that time, there was already a movement afoot among New York and London intellectuals to "domesticate" Christmas, and turn it from what it was -- a particularly violent form of "trick or treat" -- in to a family holiday. To complete this process, writers like Clement Moore and Dickens invented "traditions", which were presented as if they had a pedigree. They don't.

Despite these historical facts, every generation seems to bemoan that Christmas is all about presents and not about the "real" Christmas. I think it's past time that we give over that nonsense and admit that a) we like buying stuff, b) we like giving stuff, and c) we like getting stuff. Let's face it...the reason that you enjoyed Christmas when you were a kid was because you got a lot of new toys, not because your life suddenly became a Hallmark card.

For cryin' out loud, why be disappointed when Christmas isn't any more than that?