By Mike Scinto
Columnist
Appearing in the Kettering-Oakwood Times-Times Community Newspapers
Here’s my mandatory “commercialization of Christmas” and “the REAL meaning of Christmas” columns consolidated into one writing. But isn’t that the way the whole season is headed anyway; convenience, expedited shopping and over-simplified celebrations? I’m saddened and accepting at the same time. I am saddened because our children and their children may never have this holy season in its proper perspective, and accepting because rolling back the clock, I’ve decided, just might not happen.
I just saw on the news that “Black Friday”, the huge shopping day after Thanksgiving, and the day after Christmas (the two largest traditional retail days), have been combined this year by many retailers and are starting now to allow money strapped shoppers to enjoy those savings before the crowds hit.
QVC (where my wife is on a first name basis with the hosts) starts their Christmas in September now; and that’s following a “Christmas in July” special. I’m sure the other cable shopping networks do the same. The holiday buying season is factored into the projections and reactions by leading economists and is even taught in advanced business and marketing classes at top business schools.
As I perused the stores at the beginning of September, squeezing out the Halloween decorations were aisles of Christmas ornaments; in September!
But wait! From a Faith, or religious standpoint, isn’t it about a poor Jewish family who couldn’t find a place to sleep on the eve of the birth of their Son? And from a traditional, albeit a less religious standpoint, isn’t it about a nice old bearded man who gives little children a simple, but special toy that lights up their eyes and brings a tear to the eyes of their parents? Simplicity is the common denominator in each.
Somewhere we’ve let this thing get way out of control. I hate to start with “Back in the day…….” but I will. When I was a child, not that many decades ago, we sat around the wood-fired stove in my grandparents’ 4 room former share-croppers house watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in black and white and on a 20” fuzzy screen. When it was over we’d head up in the woods, cut our tree, carry it back and trim it as a family. We would share Christmas stories; yes the birth of the Baby Jesus story was the main focus. We’d then fall asleep as we watched Clarence save George Bailey in “It’s a Wonderful Life”. On Christmas Eve, having grown up Catholic, midnight Mass was a special, emotional and spiritual time for us to fully take in this Gift from God. I know time and memories tend to romanticize our recall, but I assure you I remember it as if it were yesterday.
Now today it’s become providing parents with catalog numbers of what kids want, watching some rock concert that is airing Christmas Eve for some reason, pro and college football classic games on the 47” big screens we got last Christmas and pre-fab meals to go for the whole family allowing them to eat and run, having to spend as little time as possible away from their X-Box Live or PlayStation 3.
This is not a “holier-than-thou” lecture. I’m as guilty of falling into the whole commercialization trap as everybody else. I am just as quick to suggest maybe we don’t have the time for traditional Christmas stories this year. I find myself wanting to take the lazy way out, since there’s so much to do anyway, and sit out Christmas services. While I try to hold on to those old traditions and meanings of the holiday, I sometimes wonder why I should bother since it is an uphill battle and it seems like I’m the only one. But what a self-defeating attitude!
As long as a single one of us remembers the real meaning of the season, realizes that it’s okay to give and receive gifts as long as they aren’t the central focus of the holidays and as long as we continue to carry on the traditions, maybe we will get to a point where we all understand that there’s much more to this time of the year than great bargains, new “toys” and eating and running. It’s a season of real potential personal and spiritual growth. We just have to slow down long enough to see that!
