When I was in high school in the late 1970’s, I worked part-time as a disc jockey for a local radio station whose policy was not to play any Christmas music until December 10. Listeners actually called us earlier in the month begging us to cue up “Frosty the Snowman” or “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” but our program manager never budged. This was actually good for business. People knew they had to wait to hear their holiday favorites, and the anticipation increased attention to the station’s playlist. Starting on December 10, we DJ’s were allowed to program two Christmas songs each hour. Then, on Christmas Eve at 6 p.m., the station (whose format was Top 40), broadcast Handel’s “Messiah,” followed by continuous commercial-free Christmas music until noon on Christmas Day.
How quaint. A few years ago, radio stations started playing round-the-clock Christmas music on the day after Thanksgiving. At the time, only one station in any given market would program wall-to-wall holiday fare. Then, multiple stations in the same market adopted the same strategy, the only difference being who switched to this format first. Now, one station in Central New York starts playing 24-hour-a-day Christmas music on November 1. By Thanksgiving, four stations are offering nothing but Christmas music. If I were a (compact) disc jockey at any of these stations, I would lose my mind by the middle of December.
The evolution toward all-Christmas-all-the-time radio reflects a larger trend in American culture. I think we all understand that radio stations play Christmas music to encourage Christmas shopping, which is good for the economy. But the commercialization of Christmas is nothing new. It actually dates back to the early 1820’s with the creation of Christmas “gift books” that cashed in on the popularity of Clement Moore’s iconic poem, “The Night Before Christmas.” These gift books came in all shapes and sizes. They contained copies of Moore’s poem plus trinkets suitable for children, spouses, or lovers. These packages sold like hotcakes. Marketers learned very quickly that Christmas was a time to indulge. Soon, advertisements filled newspapers in early December urging Christmas shopping.
The commercialization of Christmas intensified during the Great Depression, when President Roosevelt declared the fourth Thursday of November a national Thanksgiving observance. He further declared the day after Thanksgiving to be the beginning of the Christmas shopping season, hoping that a surge in retail sales would help spur a weak economy. This blatant exploitation of the Christmas holiday raised the hackles of churchgoers. I have the manuscript of a talk that my grandfather, who taught Sunday School to teenage youth, gave on the Sunday before Christmas in 1949. He lamented:
The observance of Christmas originated to communicate the birth of the Messiah, yet the world, the flesh, and the devil have tried to take possession of Christmas for their own devious ends, and have succeeded to an alarming degree. Christian people have been drawn into a swirl of commercialism and revelry so that it has become increasingly difficult to preserve the true spirit of Christmas and make it a season of worship, praise, prayer, and consecration.
What would my devout Baptist grandfather say today?
Today’s economy has become dependent on retail commerce. Up until the mid-20th century, most of our economy was either agricultural or industrial. Since World War II, we have moved steadily and rapidly toward a “service” economy. Agriculture has been subsumed by “agribusiness,” concentrating food production in the hands of a few giant corporations. Meanwhile, manufacturing jobs have moved to countries where labor is cheap. Now, the bulk of American jobs are service-oriented, and the whole economy is driven by retail consumerism. In this environment, Christmas shopping is more than a brief surge in one sector of the economy. The day after Thanksgiving is “Black Friday,” the day most retailers go into the black. Without Christmas, nearly every retailer would fail. Since the American economy is increasingly dependent on retail sales, this means its entire success hangs on Christmas sales.
Given this state of affairs, it isn’t surprising that someone would ask, “If four weeks of Christmas shopping is good for the economy, then eight weeks has to be twice as good, right?” Now, pre-Christmas sales begin after Halloween. Black Friday becomes Black Thanksgiving Night. The mad shopping rush has become a competitive sport. The crushing crowds sometimes lead to physical injury. This year, one brazen shopper armed herself with pepper spray to repel competitors from beating her to the merchandise she wanted most. Bing Crosby, Mariah Carey et al croon incessantly on the Muzak and the car radio to keep consumers humming.
Before you accuse me of being a Scrooge, please understand that I love the Christmas tradition of gift-giving. I do not lament Christmas shopping per se, but rather the extent to which the economy has come to depend on it, leading to a spirit of desperation and a level of distress completely at odds with Christmas. The cultural holiday is currently two months long. That’s one-sixth of the year. It’s hardly special anymore. The excitement and anticipation that used to make this time of year seem magical is gone. The constant stream of holiday music is grating. (How many versions of “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” are there?)
The national service-oriented economy isn’t just exploiting Christmas. It is reaching the limits of sustainability. You can’t keep stretching out Christmas further and further to spur spending. An economy built almost entirely on retail commerce traps us in a cycle of overspending, indebtedness, recession, and renewed overspending. It also wastes the abilities of millions of people who ought to be working on farms or in factories but are instead under- or unemployed.
Christian scripture and tradition invite us to imagine an economy in which everyone contributes, nothing is wasted, and there is provision for all needs. This vision is neither socialism nor capitalism; it is simply community, which is in miserably short supply these days. Is it possible that church communities might encourage healthy local communities that in turn build stronger local economies? This may be our only hope.
My grandfather lamented how commercialization threatened the church’s observance of Christmas. But today, the cultural Christmas has lost all resemblance to the Christian observance of the birth of Christ. It seems to me that our Advent worship has become a respite from the seasonal busyness all around us. It is not subject to the whims or demands of society. Advent is four Sundays every year – no more, no less – and Christmastide always runs from December 25 to January 5. Our greens, holly, poinsettias, wreaths and candles are purely and simply symbols of worship – free of exploitation. Our carols are not subliminal background music but poems of faith set to music. We do not crowd into church competing for what we will get out of the service. Instead, we gather expectantly as a community of faith.
Copyright 2011 by J. Mark Lawson
AMEN!!
Posted by: Maryanne Wright | 12/21/2011 at 09:00 AM