I went to Friendly Shopping Center to make a return about a week ago. The trees had already been lit up with hundreds of lights, wreaths were everywhere and inside the store were stockpiles of Christmas decorations while carols rang through the speakers.
It wasn’t even the 10th of November.
“They’re playing Christmas music before I have even eaten my turkey,” sophomore Calli Pastor said. “It’s ridiculous.”
I have a friend who doesn’t think that it’s so ridiculous; she puts up her Christmas tree the day after Halloween. She likes the Christmas music, the baking and the lights.
But that’s not what Christmas is about.
“It’s gotten to the point where it’s so commercialized that people don’t even remember the reason for the season,” Methodist minister Carol Gilbert said in an interview with The Guilfordian. “It’s meant to be about Jesus, not which stores open the earliest on Black Friday or whose house has the most lights.”
The older I get, the more I can feel that Christmas magic seeping out and away from me. I’ve become exposed to how the rest of the world does Christmas, and frankly, I don’t like it.
“It doesn’t have the same meaning; it’s all about buying presents,” sophomore Alessandra Belmonte said. “It just doesn’t feel like it used to.”
If we keep this up, our grandchildren won’t even get to feel that Christmas peace and magic at all. They’ll only see “70 percent off” signs and trees full of shiny things.
Even the current Christmas music has turned away from Christ, family and peace. With popular hits like “All I Want for Christmas is You” and “Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer” we’re not even celebrating the holiday for what it is. we’re only celebrating the elaborate marketing of thousands of industries.
“It’s about money; it’s about the market,” Pastor said.
It’s about the trees, the lights, the wrapping, the presents, the songs, the bells, the decorations, the stores; it’s not about the message of peace, joy, hope and love.
“People are scared of the real meaning of Christmas,” Gilbert said. “They don’t want the holy night, the silent night, or anything that doesn’t involve parties and gifts. I think we need to regain that silence, that peace that comes when you’re surrounded by people you love and the thankfulness we all should have.”
To give you an idea of how much the parties and gifts mean to us, The New Yorker reported that up to three-quarters of annual income for retail chains is made off of Christmas-time sales.
“The sales keep going up and the attendance at the Christmas Eve (church) service goes down,” Gilbert said. “It really is a disappointing thing our culture has done.”
Once a year there is supposed to be a holiday to praise, but once a year we have a holiday for buying and decorating things instead.
The spirit of Christmas is supposed to be around all year, because it is the spirit of giving, loving and creating peace. So when you see the Christmas ornaments show up beside Halloween costumes, it’s not because the Christmas magic is coming a little early this year — it’s just the merchandise that has.
