Now that December is upon us, I have found myself suddenly more receptive to any and all things related to Christmas. My wife and I couldn’t help but notice over this past weekend how many people decided to put up their tree or hang up the lights, and to both of us that made plenty of sense. Christmas, after all takes place towards the end of December so decorating homes for Christmas at the beginning of December seems to us like the obvious right time to do so.
However as we have become increasingly more aware, not everyone shares the same feeling as to when the Holiday season should begin as we do.
With what seems like a never ending period of encroachment, Christmas and the entire Holiday Season has continued to extend itself over the last decade or two, to the point where you could almost indeed call it a season – just as you would spring, summer or fall. The maddening part about this is the fact that the root cause of this encroachment has virtually nothing to do at all with the holiday festive spirit per se, and everything to do with the crass commercialism that has sadly become the “new normal” where this period of time is concerned.
I’d ask anyone over say age 30 or 35 to think about what Christmas and the Holiday season was like when they were a kid, and then compare it to how it is like today. Try as I might, I simply can’t ever remember hearing Christmas carols on the radio at the beginning of November – nor would I want to. I can’t think of a single shopping mall near my house that instantly became a holiday shopping wonderland the day after Halloween, such as is the case everywhere today.
Part of the explanation from this is found in the words of economist Victor Lebow, who in 1955 famously stated:
“Our enormously productive economy demands that we make consumption our way of life, that we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals, that we seek our spiritual satisfactions, our ego satisfactions, in consumption. The measure of social status, of social acceptance, of prestige, is now to be found in our consumptive patterns. The very meaning and significance of our lives today expressed in consumptive terms. The greater the pressures upon the individual to conform to safe and accepted social standards, the more does he tend to express his aspirations and his individuality in terms of what he wears, drives, eats- his home, his car, his pattern of food serving, his hobbies.”
When looking at the Holiday season with this point of view in mind, and when considering just how conspicuous and ritualized consumption has been intertwined with what we consider Christmas to be, I have found myself asking aloud more and more as to whether or not the Holiday season can ever return to the way it was?
I couldn’t help but notice this year how there has been an ever-increasing backlash about just how far retailers have been trying to push the Holiday season into the year. Anyone who even casually uses social media platforms would have likely seen online campaigns advocating no festive celebrations until at least after Remembrance Day in Canada or after Thanksgiving in the US. With more voices beginning to share their concern and/or disgust at this opportunistic crass-commercialism I’ve been beginning to wonder if we could ever expect to see things revert back to the way it was like only a couple decades ago?
The big question to me is if there were enough people who wanted to see the Holiday season pull back to perhaps late November or even the beginning of December instead of Nov 1st as it is now, how would we go about doing that?
Even though many of us hate seeing Christmas decorations sitting beside corn stalks and rotting pumpkins, how many of us are willing to push back against retailers and other advocates who’d prefer to keep to the new normal? How many of us are angry enough to resist any and all premature holiday overtures such as sales or social events, because of the belief that it’s happening too soon?
While I’d be more than willing to step forward for I have long been suffering from what I call “Seasonal Connected Disorder”, my sense is that many others would not. Society is filled with examples of how we are willing to complain about something, but aren’t willing to take action to make a change. One only need to look at the increased level of disgust with the political process in this country and compare it to the continued decline of voter turnout on election day to see what I mean. Complain? You betcha! Get involved to fix the complaint? Nahh…couldn’t be bothered.
If nostalgia is what has me longing for what seemed to me like a simpler and less materialistic time, then I suppose I have to tread carefully. As author Samantha Sotto wrote in her book ‘Before Ever After’; “You can’t return to a place that no longer exists, luv” and this may perhaps be the sad truth that we are relegated to a festive season that roots itself more in commercialization and less in peace, harmony or spiritual significance.
But nostalgia is still powerful enough for me to at least raise my voice with concern, and hope that others feel as strongly as I do. I don’t hate the Holiday season or even a modest amount of commercialization sprinkled in, but dammit at some point we have to take a stand and take back control over the last two months of the year!
Anyone willing to push back with me?
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