My favorite time of year has always been the days from Thanksgiving until December 25th – the Christmas season. It's a time filled with holiday cheer, good food, and Christmas music. It's the most hopeful time of the year, when little kids are giddy with excitement over Santa Claus and the anticipation of Christmas morning.
It all begins with Thanksgiving; and the thing that's really great about this day is the lack of commercial corruption. We're not bombarded with a disgusting amount of aggressive commercials demanding our patronage for special deals a month before the actual holiday. There's no stress about finding the perfect costume, buying the perfect gift, or making the perfect Valentine. Thanksgiving is a time for family, traditions, great food, and football. It's like Christmas without the presents.
Of course around this time, the big companies have already skipped over Thanksgiving since they can't really do much with a holiday that focuses on family rather than getting things. So when I had the TV on over break, I wasn't surprised by the presence of the Christmas commercials. However, I was a little disconcerted to realize that the business world has truly outdone itself this year in the celebration of a different "holiday." The day worth getting pumped for this year is apparently that day after Turkey Day – Black Friday. Companies announced the big day with an influx of commercials mimicking the comedy of Superbowl ads, and glorifying the conquest of Black Friday shopping.
I think this day has its plus side, and I usually participate in it by going to one or two stores; but as the years go by this day seems to have reached a level of importance far higher than it deserves. The majority of the commercials I saw have completely eliminated the spirit of Christmas and replaced it with the spirit of shopping.
In one of them, a mom smugly apologizes to Santa for not leaving any room in her kids' stockings for his presents. Well that's just a fantastic message to be giving. Who needs the classic Christmas spirit when you've got great deals at Macy's instead? Way to go Mom. You have succeeded in giving your kids the wonderful message that Christmas is all about getting.
Another great one celebrates the legendary song we all know and love – Rebecca Black's "Friday". If you thought you'd heard the end of that preteen wonder, you were wrong. In a stroke of genius, Kohl's rewrote the lyrics and published a video starring a psychotic woman who's just "gotta get to Kohl's on Black Friday." It features the sleep-deprived shop-enthusiast rudely elbowing her way into the store in front of an old lady, snatching an item out of another woman's cart, and filling her own cart with an impressive heap of merchandise, all before sunrise. Inspirational. And there's more. The Target lady made a few appearances, with her insane regiment of training for the big day, crying excitedly over magazine ads and counting down the days of November. Justin Bieber even starred in a Macy's commercial.
Are these fanatical super-savers the new heroes of Christmastime? Whatever happened to the values demonstrated by Charlie Brown, George Bailey, and Buddy the Elf? It would be cool, but realistically we're not going to open the door one day to a tall man in an elf suit who can tell us, "The best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear." Our society could certainly use it, but it's not going to happen.
I'm not saying that we should get rid of the present part of Christmas altogether; we just shouldn't have that as the central focus of the holiday. Contrary to what these commercials are telling us, we should still be able to give the Christmas spirit without spending hundreds of dollars on things.
"Maybe Christmas doesn't come from a store. Maybe Christmas…perhaps… means a little bit more."
is a member of the 
Be the first to comment on this article!