Christmas comes early. Literally. Like the week before Halloween. No, I didn’t get an early gift. I’m talking about the trend to draw out the holiday season ever longer each year.
Studies have shown that Christmas time causes intense stress for a majority of people. There are feelings of loss and loneliness for those without family or friends to share it with. There are unfulfilled wants and needs. There are expectations regarding gifts, meals, and visits.
So what do we do about all of this stress?
We extend the holiday season even longer.
Diminishing Returns
I know a lot of the blame can be placed on retailers. Christmas is big business. The biggest. But like any business, they respond to consumer demand. We demand better deals, easier payment options, more merchandise, and everyone is looking for an edge to get the best value.
“More of something special and unique only makes it less special and unique.”
Wouldn’t Christmas be more meaningful if it was kept to it’s box between Thanksgiving and December 25th?
Consumerism Gone Crazy
There’s even a study on how Christmas Shopping Stirs Primal Fears. Now this is truly terrifying to me. The article describes how holiday shopping causes increased aggression and survival instincts to kick-in. If anyone has ever braved going out on Thanksgiving night for Black Friday deals, you’ve seen how civilization can crumble when faced with a scarce resource like a good deal.
But what’s really scary about this article is towards the end where experts list ways that shopping can be done in a more calm and enjoyable way.
“And finally, learn the difference between ‘doing the shopping’ and ‘going shopping.’ “Doing the shopping is a chore. It’s shopping for items like cat litter and toilet roll and it’s unlikely to be very stimulating,”
Only in a highly materialized culture would a quote like that be taken seriously. This statement would feel right at home in Brave New World or THX-1138.
The Origin of Black Friday
Like many Christmas traditions, the real origins and meanings have been changed to make them more palatable to today’s Christmas celebrations. The Huffington Post has an article on the true origins of Black Friday. You may be surprised to learn that Black Friday started out as something much darker and more sinister. In the mid-1960’s, the Philadelphia Police Department dubbed the day after Thanksgiving as Black Friday not because it put retailers “in the black” but because of the chaos it caused in their city.
People were run over, trampled, fights broke out, and cops worked their longest day of the year that day. It was miserable. So they called it Black Friday. The term caught on and everyone started using it. Retailers, hoping to spin the term to something more positive, came up with the explanation of sales being so high it put the company into the black on their ledger sheet.
A Season of Hope
Christmas can be full of hope and giving. It can be about love and peace. But as the studies show, very few of us find peace during the holiday.
I don’t mean to sound negative. I’ll make the best of it as I do each year. Shortening it back down to a week or two would do wonders for making it more meaningful and special. The season is all about hope so that’s what I’m doing, hoping this trend can be reversed. And at least for now, I’ll push the fears out of my mind that seem to tell me one day we’ll have a Christmas season that starts in September.