what would CHRISTmas do?

I really despise the statement, ‘remember the reason for the season.’ Firstly, it is a bold-faced lying piece of propaganda. And secondly, who does? Really? Remember the reason for the season.

Yesterday I made the foolish decision to put off buying a Hanukkah gift to the very last possible minute. And in the end, all I decided to get was a gift card. But I had to go to the mall to get it. I figured I’d lessen the burden with a trip to Trader Joe’s and a good bottle of Malbec. But even that… oy… the mall is seasonal death to the soul.

I didn’t actually get into the mall – oh, oops, it’s the Natick Collection. I literally drove around the mega retail institution in slow traffic, unable to find a space or a way out without having to circle around all over again. So… I ended up going elsewhere. Now, certainly that waste of a half hour made me cranky. But… I couldn’t help but observing things that made my opening sentence a determined thesis.

We are in an economic crisis, right? So… why are so many people buying things? Filling all those SUVs with bags and bags of stuff. And if we are buying so many things… why are we in an economic crisis? 

I have gotten a lot crabbier about gifts in recent years. I know the lack of children in my immediate life takes off the shine of presents under the tree. Indeed, maybe it is the very lack that taints my opinion. Or maybe… if I had any person for whom I felt a particular need to bring a smile to by buying a carefully selected present… I would care. But, I don’t. I just buy a few things because… that’s the thing to do at this time, right?

And that’s okay… if we weren’t debating cutting money every which way. Justifying leaving cracks and potholes in the road, laying off a policeman, or closing a school… so we can all have a few extra dollars in our paychecks to pay off credit card bills to buy Cousin Billy another electronic gadget he’ll drop and break two months later. Maybe that’s not the way the holiday really is… but that’s what I saw when I was driving around that stupid parking lot yesterday.

Which brings me back to that stupid mantra spewed by Christians. First of all, Jesus was born some time around June. Sheep weren’t grazing in the fields in December. But… whatever, calendars change over the centuries… and things get blurry. I’ll give you that. Except, well, of course, every religion pre-dating Christianity had some sort of celebration at this point of the year. To drink lots of wine and have an orgy or to be a little more celestial, to celebrate the lengthening of the days after the solstice. It’s all good. Really… it is all good stuff. And a lot of our happy traditions still come from that.

But even if… even if I were to accept that the birth of Jesus is what this ‘season’ is all about… how am I living it by going to shopping malls? I guess… I guess we are sticking it to the man like the folks in old Judea who didn’t want to pay their Roman taxes. By going to franchised malls and filling the coffers of the retail empires far away from our place of residence. Oh… and I suppose, too, we are living it by putting poor pregnant people out on the street and forcing them to sleep in makeshift homes. Okay… all right… maybe, maybe we are keeping with the Biblical setting.

I actually like Christmas, believe it or not. I like the lights. I’m even going to buy a tree today because I. love. That. Smell. So. Much. But… I hate, I’ve always hated, the materialism. I like generosity. I like thinking of people and finding ways to make them smile. And in that way, maybe I am finding some influence from my Christian roots. But… seriously, when it comes to all this CRAZY gift buying hoopla in a time of hardship and high unemployment, what WOULD Jesus do? Do you really think he would be at the mall waiting in line to buy the new gadget? Or do you think, maybe, he might be tossing over the cash registers and telling us to stop worshipping the wrong gods?