Spirits of Christmas

For years, I’ve resented commercialization of the Holidays and the use of emotion to coerce people into buying more every year. During the Holy Season, I’ve been a holier-than-thou when it comes to giving in to the many ad pitches that are such a big part of this time of year.

I’ve felt above it all, unaffected by the hype. I must admit that I’ve felt superior to those who fall prey to commercial interests that distort the idea of Christmas in order to separate people from their money.

Recently, it occurred to me that I haven’t minded being manipulated by the dozens of Christmas-themed songs, movies and other programs that flood entertainment markets. These presentations are often used as the subtext for commercial messages; they’re intended to capture and hold our attention during the interludes of advertising.

Unfortunately for the marketers, the commercial messages fall on my deaf ears. Even when the ads are clever and memorable, I tend to forget the connection with a product. I don’t really have sales resistance as much as just a very low level of interest in most of the products that appeal to others.

There’s little variation in either the programming or advertising from year to year. A few new tunes and shows appear, but they usually remain true to form and take their place among the expanding panoply of seasonal offerings – or don’t, in the case of the relative few that totally bomb.

But by the time Thanksgiving rolls around, I’m ready for repeat performances of most offerings.

Even variations on themes fail to bore me. There must be 20 or 30 different iterations of Dickens’ “Christmas Carol,” and few new versions can match the classic impact of the 1951 black-and-white version with Alistair Sim in the title role, but I’m willing – even rather eager – to give an new adaptation a try.

I’ve particularly enjoyed “Scrooged,” with Bill Murray and the made-for-TV and modernized version “An American Christmas Carol” staring the somewhat unlikely Henry “The Fonz” Winkler.





Other versions, older and more recent are hard to resist each December, when the Christmas spirit comes upon me.

It occurs to me that I have been rather smug over the years when judging others who get caught up in gift giving and other costly traditions. The Christmas spirit drives many to the stores where materialism rules.

All these years, while belittling the lack of sale resistance exhibited by my materialistic friends and relatives, I’ve been consuming mass quantities of seasonal information. I’ve been as susceptical to seasonal offerings as have others; mine simply lack a physical residue.

Since my interests tend toward the non-material, which happen often to be free, I have felt comfortable on a sort of economic/moral high ground, belittling those who give up their hard-earned cash in the pursuit of an intangible thing called “spirit.”

I think most people would agree, particularly as they grow older, that time is a more precious resource than money. And I have certainly allocated vast amounts of time in my own pursuit of seasonal comfort and joy.

And I believe it has been time worth spending.

Those who believe their own paths to comfort and joy include things as well as thoughts are certainly within their rights when they spend money as well as time.

I’m still a bit skeptical about the quantities involved; but this year I’m feeling much less judgmental of those who “go all out” for Christmas.

Maybe, after more analysis, I have discovered that it really is the spirit that counts.

And here I have lamely related to you the uneventful chronicle of two foolish children in a flat who most unwisely sacrificed for each other the greatest treasures of their house. But in a last word to the wise of these days let it be said that of all who give gifts these two were the wisest. O all who give and receive gifts, such as they are wisest. Everywhere they are wisest. They are the magi.
        -- O.Henry, The Gift of the Magi