Christmas or Commercialmas?
Wednesday, 30 September 2009 00:00
Once upon a time, in a Mississippi long ago, the Christmas season began after Thanksgiving. The weekend after Thanksgiving was when moms and dads went shopping for the youngsters’ gifts, and the Sears Christmas catalog would show up about the same time. The city street crews would be seen, the week after Thanksgiving, hanging lighted trees, snowflakes, and Noels from city light poles.
Yes, Thanksgiving was the beginning of a marvelous month. Radio stations would slip in the occasional Johnny Mathis or Bing Crosby Christmas tune, and we’d all think sentimental thoughts about how nice the day would be when it arrived.
My, how things change.
The ACLU, through various lawsuits, has forced cities into removing their nativity scenes, and has frightened them into displaying only the most non-religious decorations during the Christmas season. Many cities are down to just displaying some greenery. Many of our schools no longer have a Christmas vacation for the students, they have “winter break”. (We all know it’s Christmas vacation, but after a few generations of this change in nomenclature, few will remain who will associate those care-free days with Christmas.)
I’ve gotten sort of used to Wal-Mart putting out Christmas merchandise to compete with their own Halloween stuff. Sort of. Now, in September, Lowe’s has Christmas merchandise out. In September.
The day after Thanksgiving, one of our local radio stations will probably follow a trend they started a few years ago, playing only Christmas themed songs 24 hours a day until December 25. Most of them are not Christmas songs, they are only Christmas themed. There is a difference, you know. “White Christmas” is a Christmas song. “Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer” is Christmas themed. A small smattering of Christmas themed music is usually tolerable, but to fill the airwaves 24 hours a day for a month, the station fills the playlist with every bit of Christmas themed drivel they can scrape up. That’s a station I take off the presets when Thanksgiving arrives.
About the only bastion of good Christmas tradition I can find these days is Christmas Eve services. There’s no mention of sales, reindeer, or any of the other claptrap that the vendors have been shoving at us for three months. Instead, we hear the story of Christ coming to join us as a mortal, his lowly start in the world, and the heavenly exultation that announced his arrival. For 2,000 years, mankind has been hearing the story, and renewing the marvel at what He has done for us.
This year, no matter how attractive their displays, no matter how low their everyday prices, or how strenuous their imploring that I buy their available items, I will not buy a single Christmas item before the day after Thanksgiving. We’ll cut our tree from the woods behind the house, as we always do, and we’ll pull out the decorations that my bride so carefully saves year after year. We’ll have a reasonable, low-key, Christ-centered Christmas.
We’ll ignore the commercial ventures, and stay focused on what matters: CHRISTmas Day.
Share Link: 
