The Christmas Creed

My mostly tongue-in-cheek blog post last Sunday about the twelve months of Christmas prompted some interesting and thoughtful comments and also a couple of phone calls from when it appeared on the religion page of The Quill. Everyone was civil, which is nice.

Now I'm going to flesh out a few concepts which are not tongue in cheek. I'm making wide generalizations here, even though I know there are many who are working to avoid the kind of lifestyle I'm getting ready to describe. If any of what I say applies to you, know that some of it also applies to me. As I commented on another topic recently, we're all hypocrites at some level. I am being critical in this piece, but it's because I hope it will lead us all to want to change even in small ways if not in big ways.

First, I don't really care about the Christmas decorating in homes which started weeks ago. It may irritate some, but it's not the issue. It brings people joy and I have no complaints about that. (Although, at the corporate level, bringing out the decorations so early, does make me suspicious of motives. How about you?)

Here's my beef. We, as a society, are a country with a set of values which is out of whack and wildly different from just a few decades ago. We have an apparently insatiable appetite for cheap, plastic crap from China. We have created a generation of children which doesn't know where anything comes from or at whose expense it was made. Even most adults don't care or want to know. We would rather buy ten toys for $2 each which will be taking up space in a landfill within a matter of weeks than spend $20 for one thing made in the U.S., maybe even by a local craftsman/woman, which will likely be around for a while. Cheap plastic crap is so much more fun, no matter what it's doing to the ecomony.

The orgy of buying at Christmas which starts in earnest this year on Thanksgiving, not even the day after but ON Thanksgiving, is not the whole problem. It's just one piece of the puzzle even though it's a large, vulgar piece. We have taken a season of the year designed to bring together family and friends as a time of expressing gratitude and turned into a time to stress out over not having enough money to buy everything on everyone's "list." The simple pleasure of enjoying each other's company is not enough. Good food and companionship apparently need "enhancement." The sad thing is the kind of enhancing we're getting ready to witness next week will look more like a train wreck.

We have also taken a holiday meant to commemorate the birth of Jesus and given it a "360 makeover," transforming it into something which is not in keeping with the simple message  his birth symbolizes. I believe Jesus meant to usher in a new Way of humility, compassion, peace and love certainly not a glut of consumerism. As I referenced last week but did not expand on, shopping at locally owned businesses during the holidays can be a good way to support friends and neighbors and help the local economy. Exchanging meaningful gifts with friends and family is one thing. Going in debt to do so in a Grinch-like white-hot fury is quite another matter.

My main complaint is that the message for all of us, the lesson our kids learn in the process of how we celebrate the season, is that buying is good, consuming is good. It's the lesson of always wanting more, never having enough stuff, never being satisfied. And that's my question. It's my question for the multi-millionaire CEOs. It's my question for someone replacing his or her perfectly fine 6-month-old smartphone with a slightly updated newer version. It's my question for all of us. When is enough ever going to be enough?

Thus, my 12-months-of-Christmas post. The problem isn't what's wrong with the holidays. It's what's wrong all of the time. There is an ever-increasing greed demonstrated at the highest levels which is eating away at the fabric of what makes a nation great. Our country is succumbing to political and corporate factions which would tell us we should not care for one another at a human level. Everything is reduced to a number, a statistic, a graph or a pie chart. Us regular folks didn't start that fire, but now we are fanning the flames by literally buying into what we're being told is right by those who have no moral compass.

The message surrounding December 25 can and will inspire us year round. Which message will it be? More stuff or more love? We must wake up and stop living a creed of greed.