Thanksgiving is based on the idea that Americans should be thankful that Native Americans died from famine, smallpox, and other diseases and that they should be thankful colonists were able to conquer the lands they were living on and make them their own. Christmas is based on the supposed birth of a supernatural being that allegedly was the son of God.
Christmas may have been a holiday for celebrating the so-called birth of Christ long, long ago. But, alas, I do not think it is anymore. The holiday now is based on consumerism and is fueled by rampant commercialism.
Walk around the convenience stores after Halloween and you will see the displays being shifted into Christmas displays. The doodads and knick knacks and electric lights are already out for you to buy before you even sit down to cut that turkey on Thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving now comes with a second day that is just as good---Black Friday. And, this year in this recession Americans could not wait to buy up all the sh*t that they could and reap the benefits from all the bargains and deals stores were offering. They didn’t buy simply because they needed to get Christmas gifts; no, they also bought sh*t because they were tired of sh*t being so expensive and now they could get it at a discount rate.
Thanksgiving evening with my family for many years now has featured an hour or two where the ads in the newspaper come out and people go through the ads figuring out what stores they will go to at 4 am to get what they want and in many cases, Christmas gifts end up arriving early for family members. That’s not a bad deal for store owners when considering the fact that you may want your loved one to have something to open on Christmas Day, and so you go and buy more later in December.
Come December, you would be hard pressed to enter a big box store or small business that doesn’t show some sign that Christmas is on its way.
For a month now, I have been in the middle of a supposed “war on Christmas.” Waged by the secular Left (which consists of proud individuals like myself), it has been claimed that Christmas is losing in America.
If anything proves that there is no “war on Christmas” and that it is all based in anti-Semitic and white supremacist ideas, it’s the fact that Christmas has a color scheme. Hanukkah and Kwanzaa and Festivus and any other secular Left holiday that Christians may feel threatened by do not.
So, despite the fact that stores may have stopped saying Christmas (which they haven’t because their cashiers and other workers will wish you a merry Christmas whether you approve of it or not), the idea that “Happy Holidays” is a sign of a “war on Christmas” is ridiculous because it appears in red and green and I know those colors to be Christmas colors.
In northern Indiana where I live, the past week has been nothing but rain, ice, sleet, snow and more rain, ice, sleet, snow. The roads have been downright treacherous. But, that won’t stop people from being out there to get gifts for all those people they “have to” buy gifts for.
It didn’t stop me. It’s much easier to preach ideology on Christmas than it is to put that ideology to practice. (This reality is similar to the reality that it’s much easier to claim you are going green than it is to actually go green.)
Before the semester end got me bogged down I was going to buy local in Chicago and buy gifts that could truly benefit the ones I love and gather with each year. But, I did not and so I came home to Mishawaka, IN, and with one to two weeks left until Christmas, I chose to just make it easy---go to the big box stores.
Since I am focusing on what Christmas is and how you would be hard pressed to find Jesus during the holiday season, I will not go into great detail. Just think Black Friday and you will understand. A vision of Black Friday will accurately bring to your mind and idea of the kind of messes I and others have gone through this Christmas.
Do parents and children have conversations of this nature?
Child: I want an iPod for Christmas. And I want this XBOX 360 game Gears of War 2. And I want…
Parent: Would Jesus want you to have that game?
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