Ever since A Charlie Brown Christmas made its TV debut in 1965, Americans have been guilt-tripped about the commercialization of Christmas and the excesses of the holiday shopping season. I know we all talk about the importance of living simply and saving money during the holidays. And no one complains more than me about the insane, occasionally deadly Oklahoma Land Rush atmosphere of “Black Friday.” (I avoid setting foot in any retail establishment on the day after Thanksgiving.)
But recently, at this time of economic struggle, I’ve been reconsidering my Grinch-like attitude toward Christmas shopping. Despite the excesses and crass commercialism of the holiday shopping season, maybe there’s something noble there as well.
My first job when I got out of college was teaching English in public schools in Japan for a year. And one of the things that really stuck with me was the Japanese people’s admiration for Christmas. Even though Japan is not a Christian country and Christmas is not celebrated as an official holiday there, many people still asked me about Christmas, store window displays said “Merry X-mas,” and the school lunch during the week of December 25th included a special slice of Christmas Cake. Many Japanese people told me that they envied what they called “the American Christmas spirit.”
Maybe it was the Japanese earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster that triggered this memory for me, or maybe it’s having young children of my own now and wanting to provide a comfortable life for them, or maybe it’s the countless stories of American families struggling to get by in the worst economy in 30 years… but for some reason, I feel like looking at Christmas shopping in a more favorable light.
Is it really so wrong that we use this one time of year to buy gifts for others? Despite the excesses and annoyances and loud, crowded stores, and the blaring, grating, over-played Christmas songs… isn’t the intention behind Christmas shopping fundamentally decent and good?
Is it such a terrible thing that once a year during the darkest season of the year, people come together to celebrate, to comfort each other, to aspire to share something new and shiny under the tree?
And even the loud, crowded stores aren’t so bad. People are making a living from working at those stores. At a time of sky-high unemployment, I wish we had more crowded stores full of frenzied Black Friday shoppers.
My wife used to work at a retail job when she was in high school and she said that the Christmas season was her favorite time of year to work there. The store was packed, the cash registers were hopping, every shift flew by because everyone was working hard and people were buzzing with excitement; you could feel it in the air.
So maybe, despite my long-term aversions, Christmas shopping on the whole is a good thing. By all means, set a budget for your holiday shopping, don’t run up thousands of dollars of high-interest credit card debt, and don’t make the mistake of thinking that “things” are the same as “love.” But on the whole, I’m going to try to take a more charitable view of Christmas shopping from now on.
The holiday shopping season speaks to something essential in the American spirit that is worth admiring and emulating. We want to share the best of life with the people we love. We want to surround ourselves and shower our loved ones with material richness. We want each year to be better than the last, starting right now.
This must be why so many Japanese people asked me about the American Christmas spirit – maybe they could feel that sense of optimism and energy and child-like wonder, and wanted some of it for themselves. (Or maybe they were just hoping that I would buy them a present. And I didn’t.)
Happy holidays!
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- How Did the Top 1 Percent Get So Rich?
- Your Finances and Giving Thanks
- Black Friday: Why You Should Consider Paying with Your Credit Card
Photo credit: img_6115-raw by Mulad on Flickr
