Critics on their social media soap boxes have spent the past month loudly proclaiming that Christmas is too commercial. The nub of their complaint is that the true meaning of Christmas is lost amid the buying frenzy that marks the holiday. They claim the essence of Christmas lies not in gifts, decorations and festive eating and drinking, but in non-material things, such as celebrating the birth of Christ, reconnecting with family and friends, or spreading peace and “good will” toward others.
Seventeenth century Puritans made it a criminal offense to celebrate Christmas, finding the raucous gatherings sinful. Author C.S. Lewis condemned Christmas as a “festival of excesses.” “Peanuts” character Charlie Brown, spying Snoopy’s ostentatiously decorated doghouse, bemoaned commerce’s infiltration into the holiday.
And just as surely as snow will fall on Christmas Eve in the movie “White Christmas,” complaints that Christmas is too commercial will fall on deaf ears. Last Christmas season consumers spent $886.7 billion. And, except for a brief pause during the Great Recession of 2008 to 2009, Christmas spending has increased every year since 2002. And while there are some signs that inflation has taken a bite out of this year’s holiday spending, it’s minimal at most.
