YES, I LOVE THE COMMERCIALISATION OF CHRISTMAS Every year someone complains about the commercialisation of Christmas. Someone has to whinge about the hordes of people buying last-minute presents or discussing the sales or arguing over what will be the Christmas No. 1 single. But you know what? I welcome the cheap commercialisation of Christmas. Thats right, I said it. I dont just welcome it - I love it. And Im even writing an entire post to explain why. First, lets define this. What does the commercialisation of Christmas even mean? I assume people refer to how celebrating Christmas requires us to buy things: cards, copius amounts of food, drinks, Christmas music, mince pies, mistletoe, and of course presents. Lots of presents. Frankly, its the need to buy presents that were complaining about, right? Christmas has also become a celebration anyone can join in. I know Hindu, Muslim and Jewish families who celebrate Christmas. My family in the United States - a mixture of Sikhs and Christians - all get together in a big house and exchange presents and play games in a ritual that lasts ALL DAY. Like every year, Ill be spending Christmas with my family in the UK too. But the commercialisation of Christmas is the reason why it can be celebrated by anyone and everyone. If it was just about going to church, singing carols and praising Jesus - I have to admit, many of us probably wouldnt get involved. Religious rituals arent my thing, and I suspect the vast majority of non-Christians (including atheists) would stay away too. People who are too poor to feed themselves over the holidays have a right to complain, not those of us lucky enough to be able to feed ourselves. The commercialisation of Christmas brings with it a secularising effect that makes it accessible to anyone. We can all sing Christmas pop songs (which are rarely about Jesus), buy presents for each other, indulge in Secret Santa, eat unhealthy amounts of food and mince pies, and drink ourselves to sleep. The commercialisation that people complain about is precisely what makes Christmas so fun and widespread. Of course, some people will always take it too far, but those are exceptions not the rule. And of course, no one is obliged to buy all the commercial stuff: you can listen to the music on radio, limit Secret Santa to £5, make your own cards and go teetotal. But the point still stands. Christmas is perhaps the most widely celebrated festival in the world, even with non-Christians, because a bunch of commercialised non-religious rituals have sprung up around it. The only parallels I can think of are the Hindu festivals of Diwali (celebrate by letting off fire-crackers!) or Holi (water-fight!) - which have become similarly commercialised. The only other group who have a right to complain are observant Christians of course. But since Christmas was originally a festival appropriated from the Pagans, its only right that it eventually goes full circle and returns to the Heathens. and lastly, without the commercialisation of Christmas we wouldn’t get amazing parodies like the Punjabi Christmas Album. What’s there to complain about? https://youtube/watch?v=tFD19G-oxQk
Posted on: Mon, 22 Dec 2014 15:53:23 +0000
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