Merry Christmas versus Merry Consumerism

I missed writing yesterday in my transit back from Thanksgiving through the stark and austere farmlands of rural Indiana.  But my mind was very much on that this is the weekend of the year where it is all about retail shopping.

Last year I gave a critique of the economic exploitation of Christmas. As I think about this year, my thoughts did not change so much. The Christmas tradition continues to be exploited for all the profit that can be had.   It seems to me that consumerism is becoming a tradition unto itself where a day gets called "Black Friday" and its meaning is known to everyone.  

It made headlines here in the United States that some were protesting Walmart's opening on Thanksgiving Day to get the jump on Black Friday. Economic competition and continued recession make for such drastic sales techniques, and I am glad that some people are beginning to take notice.

Mind you there were some good deals that I had been tempted to get in on such as the 40-inch TV for under $200.00 (US). In terms of real economic terms that was a great value in the history of Television, however, my better nature said no . . . I did not need buy it . . . yet.

Yesterday, on the way home, we stopped by a large outlet shopping mall by the interstate highway, and drank in the atmsophere, and we went today to the nearby shopping malls.  All three places were full of people like myself looking for good deals and buying stuff. The Christmas music was blaring from store to store to store and the two youth-oriented clothing stores nearly asphyxiated mall shoppers with the strong wafting of some unknown cologne. It was not exactly inspiring but maybe a little boring as I waited in line for my Starbucks.

 

We don't want to look like jerks

Nevertheless, as I drove home today from the last shopping mall, I asked myself: what truly drives us to go to the wall in consumerism at Christmas? I am still working on this one--and I may come up with other ideas, but my current, working theory is the pursuit of happiness versus the sense of obligation and prevention of not looking like a selfish jerk . . . yes I am thinking that it is about the emotion, and it is not exactly profound.

Life in the 21^st Century United States is intense enough. Then we have this season where we try to be “merry” and “happy,” which complicates matters.

Furthermore, many of us feel responsible for the feelings of others around us (family and what not). Yes, some of them have their emotions on their sleeves, and they are likely to whine and make blaming statements if they are missed. The obligation and desire to avoid guilt pushes us out there to buy things and possibly re-gift the things we find unusable to us. Obligation and the compulsion to avoid guilt are powerful drivers.

What makes emotions all the more complicated is that hard-to-buy for person. The hard-to-buy for person

• either has everything,
•  or we don't know them,
• or they hate everything—there is no pleasing them.

Helpful Re-framing.

 

The statement “__ shopping days until Christmas” has this way of putting pressure on you to get out there and shop, or go online and look. I think that in the end, two of the greatest inventions of the past 20 years have been the gift receipt and gift card, and I highly recommend them as sanity savers.

Otherwise, I have come to find serenity in agreeing that nothing is perfect in this world, and I am not responsible for the feelings of others.    I choose to see the person as hating everything as being someone who is so-self-centered that they don't have the social grace of being thankful that someone gave them something.  I am going to do my best this holiday season and I will not to push myself to make everyone happy—it just won't happen.