Merry Xmas and a Great Big Bill
The Culmination of the Consumer Craze
An Old Lady’s Deep Thoughts #12
Merry Xmas, folks!
I generally use the “X” version of our favorite holiday since, in America, Christ has little to do with the biggest celebration of the year. So, once again, merry Xmas.
We’re doing great so far.
Apparently, this holiday season promises to be the biggest in a number of years. So much for the price of eggs keeping us from living our best lives. I’m not a big egg eater, so I must admit I’ve gotten off unscathed.
However, here we are again.
Come rain or shine, snowstorms or power outages, soaring credit card debt, or modern-day stress, we will do our patriotic duty and spend, spend, spend.
I had an idea the other day that I tossed around for a bit but soon realized that it would never fly — not with our consumer religion that propels the drive to invest in the supposed American Dream.
I happen to think it’s more like the American Nightmare, but that’s just me.
As a side note, I didn’t grow up celebrating Xmas. My dad, who was the leader of a religious cult, arrived at the conclusion that December 25th wasn’t the birthday of his beloved Jesus.“The origins of Christmas stem from both the pagan and Roman cultures. The Romans actually celebrated two holidays in the month of December. The first was Saturnalia, which was a two-week festival honoring their god of agriculture Saturn. On December 25th, they celebrated the birth of Mithra, their sun god. Both celebrations were raucous, drunken parties.”
Of course, we don’t do the drunken parties any longer, do we?
Back to my idea that never got off the ground, however. I had this fleeting notion that if the middle class joined forces and refused to spend a single American dime on Christmas this year, the lesson to the wealthy could be monumental. I mean, our whole economy is built upon spending more this year than last year.
It’s the throngs of everyday Americans that make Christmas such an economic blockbuster.
Don’t get me wrong; it’s not a boost to my wallet or yours, but somebody is making a killing when we all do our patriotic duty, pull out the credit cards, and spend, spend, spend.
But what if we refused, just once, to support the economy by spending our hard-earned money?
What if we celebrated the birthdays of Jesus, Saturnalia, and Mithra without all the booze, expensive Christmas menus, wrapping paper, bows, trees, decorations, lights, presents, baubles, and airplane tickets?
Would that send a message to our overlords?
Maybe. But, hey, it’s Christmas, right? At least working-class people get a paid day off, which is not to be scoffed at in a country that hates to pay workers for their work, let alone for a day to worship their gods.
So here we are again: exhausted but still trying to participate in the rituals and traditions of our culture.
It’s not Rome, but I daresay we haven’t changed that much since the Roman Empire and their drunken parties. So bring out the eggnog (does anyone really like eggnog?) and enjoy your day off from work. You can deal with the consequences next year as you struggle to pay off your credit card bills, haul your tree out of the house, climb ladders to remove the strings of lights, and go back to work to toil yet again until Easter. You might not get a day off from work for Easter, but hey, you’ll go from the birth of a god to the resurrection of a god without spending too much time on the death of a god while enjoying a bunny that delivers candy eggs to your doorstep.
And, best of all, you’ll be part of a consumer culture that is the envy of the world.
Teresa is an author and professional myth buster. You can find her books on Amazon.
