By Julian Montoya
Corporate America tries to diminish holidays like Halloween and Thanksgiving in service of expanding the fervor around Christmas. We need to resist this invasion and slow down to appreciate each holiday for the joys they offer.
Christmas seems to be coming earlier and earlier every year. The sounds of that Mariah Carey song we all know so well seeping into our lives before we’ve even finished our Thanksgiving dinner. I’ve even seen some shops and homes set up Christmas lights and decor long before the fires in jack-o-lantern’s have even been extinguished. It’s uncanny seeing the contrast of Fall decor and 12-foot skeletons right next to a small jolly statue of our favorite fat man, Santa Claus.
As you might’ve noticed, as soon as Halloween ended people already started getting ready for Christmas. A big reason for this early Christmas preparation is so that businesses won’t be so overwhelmed by the excessive amount of Christmas orders that they get. The holiday season is the busiest of the year after all. So they spread out the Christmas period further with marketing and initially starting small in stores before ramping up later on. It’s also a great opportunity for businesses, especially for larger corporations, to make a lot more money from consumers buying decorations early.
However, this also means that other holidays that go on during this extended Christmas time period get often overlooked. Take Thanksgiving for example. Now, I’m sure that many people still celebrate the holiday, but from being squished between two of the biggest holidays of the year, Christmas and Halloween; there’s not much room in the public’s mind for Thanksgiving, let alone any less recognized holidays in that time. With all the attention that is taken up by Christmas, where is there room for those who celebrate other holidays like Hanukkah or Kwanza? It feels like Christmas has just become this all-encompassing holiday that captures the whole Winter season and even parts of the Fall.
This obsession with earlier and earlier promotion of Christmas isn't good for the actual holiday either. Since Christmas has become this huge holiday, to be marketed by corporations and eaten up by consumers, over time the holiday has increasingly lost a lot of its value. Christmas, and all of its associated holidays, become less and less about a family and community get-together of sharing love, food, celebration, and presents, and more of a way to buy and sell more and more. As we’ve all become more isolated and attached to simply just spending, Christmas has become very corporatized. People have become more worried about who’s got the most fancy and expensive present; who’s got the most perfect gift. All so businesses can keep making more money, exacerbating our consumerist desires.
So, Neuwirth students, when you’re sitting around the table for Thanksgiving, take time to enjoy the moments you have with your family and community celebrating these holidays. Despite current trends, I think a lot of people do realize that the commercialization of these holidays is actually a bad thing. Besides, it’s always more important to spend time with those you love than spend your time worrying about what to spend your money on.