The Christmas Consumer Orgy

The past few days I've noted a number of commentators and bloggers rending their verbal garments about the removal of Christ from Christmas, accusing secularists of waging a cultural jihad against Christianity. Honestly, I don't buy it. Christians, as the guardians of interpretation of what Christmas really means, have had the upper hand in its reinterpretation and secularization. The American experience of Christmas is not about devotion to Christ and celebrating his Incarnation and Nativity. It is about consumerism, the American civic religion. And I want to make this as clear as I can: Christians are the chief practitioners of this cult.

First, a little history lesson. The modern experience of Christmas as a time of exchanging gifts is exactly that - modern. It dates from the late 19th Century in Britain. During the last half of the 20th Century, Americans, flush with cash from the post-war economic boom, turned Christmas into the consumer orgy that it is today. And not a peep was heard during that time from the Church, except for the fundamentalist kooks and cranks who complained that Christmas was too religious, i.e. a Papist conversion of an ancient pagan holiday.

What is most troubling to me about how Christians celebrate Christmas is how it is so centered around getting, rather than giving. A number of years ago I had a relative get upset at me because I didn't give gifts to the right people, and it severely damaged our relationship. It didn't matter that at the time (as is true at most times) I was flat broke. Tosh! The Christmas snub could not be ingnored and the established slighting protocal had to be enforced. Of course, that I had violated the Christmas code wasn't relayed to me by the offender, either. They told my parents, who told me months after the fact. After that experience, I asked my family to stop buying me gifts for Christmas, and I told them that my gift-giving was going to be dramatically reduced. My parents by-and-large ignored my repeated request, but that is their prerogative.

What also troubles me is that sound family financial practices go right out the window during this time. I know families that spend thousands of dollars on their children each Christmas, some of whom can't afford it. Let me make a moral judgment: if you go in to debt at all for Christmas, you are part of the problem, not part of the solution. You're crazy, on top of that. But I will readily admit that the social pressures to revel in the consumer orgy are immense.

And the Christmas consumer orgy is self-perpetuating. Those children this year getting their 40gig or Nano Ipods (as stocking-stuffers), the $400 Xbox 360, a $2000 digital video and computer editing system, a $1500 electric guitar, etc. in 25 years are going to have even higher giving standards for their children, because in good, old American fashion, they are compelled to outdo their parents. What are we teaching our children by how we celebrate Christmas? Will they be surprised as adults to learn that they just can't afford, let alone surpass, the Christmas spending expectations their parents established for them? Will their parents ever tell them that they really can't afford their Christmas giving right now? I have to say in all honesty that most evangelical Christian families I know personally are getting their children punch-drunk on the no-end-in-sight consumerism that drives the American economy and culture. The kids really don't stand a chance.

If you doubt my theory, I propose this challenge: without notice, give your children nothing more this holiday season than a personalized Christmas card filled with encouraging thoughts and heart-warming words. Tell them what you've not told them for a while. If that's too cold turkey for you, tell them that the money you were going to spend on buying them gifts, you've deposited into their college savings account. Or you donated to charity, so other underprivileged children around the world could enjoy Christmas. What response can you anticipate? Will they be filled with excitement, or disappointment? You know the answer. But it isn't their fault - it's your fault. That's how you trained them and those are the expectations that you've established.

Let me make a prediction: since Christmas falls on Sunday this year, I fully expect that worship services across this country on that day will be little more than an exhibition of all the toys, clothes, gadgets, jewelry, computers, cars and other miscellaneous crap that everyone got when they opened their gifts earlier that morning. Yes, that might be judgmental of me, but I don't think that I'm far from the mark. I've even heard of several cases of churches cancelling worship services on Christmas this year so that congregants can "be home with family."


I realize that I've gotten this far talking about Christmas, and you have followed right along with me, and Jesus really hasn't figured into the discussion at all. And that's precisely my point. It is strikingly easy for us as Christians to discuss Christmas without ever mentioning Christ. Should we really be surprised by public officials lighting "Holiday" trees? Children getting school off at the end of December for "Winter Break"? The "After Winter Solstice Sale"? Who is really to blame for taking Christ out of Christmas?

If you want to be truly revolutionary and counter-cultural - striking a blow against cultural secularism - reexamine over the next few weeks what the Advent season, Christmas, and Epiphany is all about. Take some time to understand what the Church has understood these holy days to mean in the life of the Christian and in the life of the Church. And in the personal searchings of your own heart, consider how you and your family can strip away all of the consumerist trappings that have obscured the true meaning of Christmas.

Here are some suggestions for breaking the power of Christmas consumerism: Invite a family (or two, or three, or four) from church over to spend the day feasting, fellowshipping, and making merry; have a single person join your family for the day; volunteer as a family to help organizations, like Justice Fellowship's Angel Tree ministry or the Marine's Toys for Tots program, distribute gifts to poor children, or serve food in the homeless shelter; ask your church officers if there is a family in the church that you can financially help anonymously; or as a family, visit a widow or widower from your the church. And be sure to invite your unchurched neighbors and friends to worship with you on Christmas morning.

Yes, Virginia, Jesus really is the reason for the season.