A Commercialized Christmas

Well here we are again, celebrating Christmas or as we now know it’s also known as a “Holiday." The name of the day doesn’t mean much; it’s the way you celebrate it that’s important to you and everyone else.

For those of us who believe in God and Jesus Christ, it is a celebration of the birth of Jesus; a time to rejoice, and count our blessings. A time to love one another, and share our lives with those we love. We do this by going to church and going home and having a great family dinner and trading gifts with each other. I can only assume these gifts are meant for Jesus, however, he has no use for them, so we give them to each other instead.

Somewhere along the way a guy named Kris Kringle joined in the celebration and became known as Santa Claus. What a great guy he is, he shows up in the middle of the night, drops down a chimney, and leaves toys for all of the good girls & boys. We only hear from him at Christmas time when he delivers all these gifts all over the world. When he started, the gifts were handmade and given with love, there were no manufacturers of toys. People couldn’t afford to spend a lot of money on gifts, so Santa and his elves made them. Some of these gifts have been passed down in the families for generations and are treasured.

Some wise manufacturers decided that this was a good time of the year to sell their products. So they got together with Santa to subcontract the work out to manufactures who would make and sell the products through stores. Besides the elves were probably forming unions for more pay.  This gift giving thing was getting out of hand for poor old Santa.

Not all gifts come directly from Santa, a lot are purchased by shoppers who want to make sure their loved ones receive the right gifts. Some shoppers don’t shop ahead of time, they leave it to the last minute. So the store owners decided to remind the shoppers what was available by advertising. They began advertising right after Thanksgiving. Apparently that wasn’t enough, so they start advertising Christmas items right after Halloween. You see they can make a lot of money on Halloween candy and decorations, but very little on Thanksgiving. So, let’s skip that Thanksgiving thingy and start Christmas shopping early.

In an effort to gain more shopping time, they had the bright idea to start the day after Thanksgiving and call it Black Friday. I don’t know why they call it Black Friday.

Last year stores opened at 6 a.m., and this year they opened at Midnight! Now you have to remember, they have huge discounted items to draw the shoppers in, so the shoppers have to start camping out early, sometimes 24 hours early to be in the store first.

Bah Humbug to those workers who would like to have a nice Thanksgiving dinner with their loved ones. Put them to work getting the stores ready, they can skip that dinner. Of course, the head honchos of the companies are home with their loved ones.

So now the shoppers get to skip their Thanksgiving dinners. The families of the shoppers and workers? They are having hot dogs and beans since there is no one to cook or sit at the table to enjoy the meal.