Past Opinion Articles

Article for the week of 12/27/08

A thought as the Holiday season gives way to the new year
By Puns McKenna

Normally, we as consumers wouldn’t see the danger. But I’m here to tell you. If we don’t stop the commercialization of the world, we’re going to lose the meanings of all of our holidays. Right now, for millions of people across the United States alone, Christmas is just another excuse to spend themselves so far into debt that they can’t see the forest for the moths in their purses. These people are rapidly growing from a minority to the majority. The innocent, fun-loving folks who know the true meanings.

What is the true meaning of Christmas, you ask? Easy! Christmas is the time of year when we gather with our family and friends to celebrate the birth of a tiny baby roughly two thousand years before any of us was born. Why do we do this? I don’t think there is any one pat answer for this question. I can tell you why my family and I do it. We do it because we believe that celebrating the Savior’s birth is a time to remember why we are all alive. I mean afterall, if it weren’t for that tiny baby, none of us would be where we are today.

I won’t wax philosophical or get into a theological discussion here, but try not to be offended when it creeps into my speech.

Okay, so we all know that Best Buy has great deals on electronics. We all know that Wally World is the best place to get those last minute batteries for uberly expensive toys that you bought for your kids. But do we have to know it in October? This is the extent of the damage we have done to ourselves. No! This is only a tip to the iceberg. We’re more worried about spending our hard-earned dollars on things than spending our precious tome with our loved ones. Personally, I find it remolting! For those that don’t know “remolting” is a cross between revolting and morbidly disgusting.

It’s like we’re all living the Griswald’s Family Christmas nightmare over and over and over and over, ad nauseum, ad infinitum. Is this the Groundhog Day of annual holidays into perpetuity? That would be truly scary. Well, only remotely scary I suppose. I mean, Bill Murray did do both Scrooged and Groundhog Day. So we could have some weird sort of hybrid cross-over thing going on. That isn’t really the point though. I am getting to the point, really, so please bear with me.

My point is, we are nailing our holiday… the true spirit of Christmas, into a coffin. Sure everyone likes to receive a gift or two throughout the year. Christmas, Birthdays, Easter, etc… But what is it about this gift that God gave everyone, that no one can seem to remember? Why is celebrating the birth of our Savior so blasted difficult? We’re talking about remembering the whole reason why the human race has survived this long. The Baby Jesus! That’s it, the whole reason behind the Christmas holiday.

Heck! Just look at the word. Christmas… Let me break it down for you. Christ is the name given to the Holy Savior at his birth. Mas is the celebration of some one’s life or death. And frankly, due to the level of materialism in this world, it is becoming more of the death mass. Very few care... Unless you count the ones who criticize us for our belief in Santa Clause, and then hypocritically turn around and write a letter to the Santa that they don’t believe in. I think it’s time we got back to the basics…. The real meaning of Christmas.