As a young girl, there was nothing quite like the rush of excitement and curiosity as I attempted to fall asleep on Christmas Eve. Laying in the pitch black, I would wait anxiously for any clue that Santa Claus and his reindeer were making their yearly visit. Although I became aware of the fictionality of Santa (sorry if this is the first time you’re hearing of it) as a preteen, my Christmas spirit was still thriving well into my early high school years. It wasn’t until learning one thing that my enthusiasm for the holiday was destroyed: the existence of the Christmas industry. As I grew older, it became harder and harder to fall asleep on the night before Christmas once my childhood naivety was diminished by this realization.
The overconsumption that is typical of the United States has allowed for the Christmas industry to collect $830 billion during the 2015 season. Retail sales skyrocket as everyone rushes to fill the space below the fir tree in their living room. According to one source, electric companies earn an extra $233 million from U.S. households during the holiday season as they power the strings of Christmas lights on their trees and outside their homes. The price of stock shares for shipping companies like FedEx rise as presents bought online make their way from warehouses to doorsteps.
Yet the economic aspects of Christmas are very easy to overlook when blinded by the mask that the holiday creates. Overwhelmed by TV commercials advertising the latest and greatest gifts, the traditional Christmas music on every radio station, SantaCon and the friendly comparison of Christmas lists among friends, we are thrown into the cyclone of Christmas that begins on the stroke of midnight on Black Friday up until the final hour of Dec. 25.
While Christmas was originally created to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, its significance has entirely transformed. Rather than spending time in church or in the presence of loved ones, time is spent in malls and online, shopping for gifts. The traditional ideals of love and family that Christmas is intended to uphold have become stress and anxiety. Adults are expected to stretch every dollar and ounce of patience they have in order to show how much they “truly love someone” in the form of boxes of material items wrapped in colorful paper. While many of us use the excuse of being “broke college students” to refrain from extravagant Christmas gifts, it’s important to remember that a handmade gift from the heart can bring just as much, if not more pleasure to someone than a store-bought item.
When faced with the startling reality that the commercialization of Christmas has allowed for the exploitation of our ideals, Christmas can be seen as one huge scam. Or as Lucy van Pelt from “Peanuts” puts it, “We all know that Christmas is a big commercial racket. It’s run by a big Eastern syndicate, you know.” Although I am no Grinch, the thought of not participating in Christmas has crossed my mind more than once. One group of Canadian Mennonites has established an initiative called the “Buy Nothing Christmas,” and another group did an abundance swap, in which they exchanged items they didn’t want anymore for something new.
While this may seem unrealistic, outrageous or in direct violation of the premise of Christmas, it’s worth considering. Even if you do choose to buy gifts, you are allowing the people in the industry to give their families a special holiday. However, just be sure through all of the chaos of the holiday season, you don’t allow the commerce of Christmas to engulf the sentiment of Christmas.
Savanna Vidal is a sophomore majoring in biology.