perfect material symbol of both my love for each special someone on my list and my joy at the birth of baby Jesus. And each year I happened to find at least a few of those gifts/symbols at places like The Gap or Best Buy. I was not alone. I know this because of the lines I stood in to buy my modern representations of frankincense and myrrh.
Yet, despite disciplined budgeting, each year I would always come out of the holiday season staggering. I made peace with it quickly, as I knew many of the friends I made standing in line at the Gap were also struggling come January. In fact, at my own job in the jewelry industry, we were warned that people would try to avoid taking out a credit line in January with the excuse that they had maxed out their credit cards during the Christmas season. Mind you, in serious retail this is seen only as an excuse. And if I were to accept that excuse from a customer, as a sales associate, I would be scolded and penalized for it.
On the lowest rung of the retail industry, sales associates experience how bloodthirsty corporations continue to grow, especially during the holiday season. And, like me with my July spreadsheets, the marketplace begins plotting early as well. Crafting all the ways they will win our patronage: whether it be warming our hearts and inspiring us to buy or simply wooing us with the lowest price. And, after frantically placing every last gift-wrapped piece of future garbage under the tree, we gather to worship and sing songs about a baby that arrived in the world to bring peace and love and deliverance...and free gift-wrapping with each purchase.
What?!
The documentary What Would Jesus Buy? follows a group of activists touring the country as the Church of Stop Shopping featuring a gospel choir singing spirited holiday tunes dedicated to the anti-consumer gospel. They were kicked out of shopping malls, Wal-Marts, and Starbucks all over the country as they spread their message of a non-consumptive holiday alternative. As both a choir dork and a member of the Church of Stop Shopping, I was very jealous of their travels.
But, thankfully, I was also inspired to continue to refashion my approach to and perspective on Christmas. I was lucky to grow up in a home with warm Christmas mornings and plenty of presents under the tree. Like many American Christian children, I was taught the story of the miracle of Jesus' birth alongside the story of the magic of Santa Claus. And after attending a candlelight Christmas Eve service and fighting back bored yawns amidst solemn worshippers singing "Silent Night" I would rush home to forget about Jesus and lay awake trying to hear the footsteps of my favorite Christmas character on the roof. Reinvisioning Christmas, without all the tissue paper, shopping bags, and wish lists is not exactly easy. Especially when hiding behind the evils of the consumer Christmas is the truly wonderful splendor of family and religious tradition. It is often difficult to separate them. Bucking the way our society approaches Christmas is like shooting the middle finger at my family.
Last year I approached my mother in August and told her about the recent conversion I had made to the Church of Stop Shopping. I suggested our family do an alternative Christmas. No presents we bought from stores: only homemade gifts. Instead of our traditional morning in our PJ's amongst piles of presents, we could work at a soup kitchen or help with a local charity. With the money we would have been spending at Target and Amazon.com we could instead choose charities that were meaningful to us and give to those truly in need. And for a little Christmas indulgence we could treat ourselves to a family outing, like a nice dinner together, where we could exchange homemade gifts and spend time loving one another instead of cooing at each others' store bought treasures. The idea was balked at and given an automatic veto. I was accused of attempting to ruin Christmas for my nine year old sister and the idea of perhaps working in a soup kitchen was reluctantly accepted as a sort of compromise.
Ouch.
So I took a different approach. In early November, just as the Thanksgiving sales were being advertised, I sent out letters to my family members, talking about my consumer conversion and asking that, instead of gifts, my family give donations to a mission in the Gulf Coast, where I worked for two months. On the back of my letter I included tips for responsible and sustainable shopping during the holidays. (One step above me getting on my knees and pleading, "If you're going to buy...at least do it fair trade! For the love of God! Literally!") Yet, only a small portion of my family honored my Christmas request. And I ended up receiving what seemed like more miscellaneous stuff on Christmas day. I stuck to my resolution of making all my gifts (with a few exceptions) and presented homemade gifts to every one on my list, while also gifting a few meaningful charities in my life. Yet, I still left quite a bit of gift wrap and even sweatshop labor in my Christmas wake. And my radical vision became a small, unsuccessful, one-man protest.
So, What Would Jesus Buy? inspired me to throw away my Christmas budgets of yore, and use my neurotic spreadsheet-loving energy to plan a holiday approach this year that will be as radical as the little dude whose birthday we are allegedly celebrating. And that calls for some real analysis of what that even means. How can I meaningfully celebrate Christmas and the birth of Jesus Christ, in light of who Jesus grew up to be and the message he proclaimed?
What this means for you is that this blog is...
...TO BE CONTINUED!
Stay tuned for my proposed birthday tribute to JC.
5 comments:
Good post. I have felt the same way at Christmas. Unfortunately, my family is of the sort that 'you have to have presents' and 'the kids need something to open'. So, basically what happens on my side of the family is that if we do not literally instruct my parents to buy certain items, there will be massive amounts of junk. Junk for the sake of getting 'something'. And even if we do instruct or personally buy something for my parents to give to the kids, there will still be miscellaneous 'junk' that they will give to the kids to even up their piles. Yay.
That's what Christmas has really become which I do not believe what it should be. It has become a time to buy for the sake of buying. Buying because you can.
The question is, how can we make it what it should be and honor our parents wishes to open presents? Don't know. I think most of this (at least for my family) is because my parents didn't have the abundance that we have now. They were lucky to get a pair of socks and some fruit for Christmas and now they have to make up for that.
The sad part is, while we are opening our presents of abundance, there will be those that go hungry on Christmas.
Difficult situation. I understand your need to stay true to your personal ethics, but at the same time, your parents' argument that you are "ruining Christmas for your sister" has the ring of truth, as overstated as the criticism may be. Having drunk your fill of holiday excess during your own childhood, you are now perhaps selfishly imposing your value system upon those who are less convicted in the necessity of drastic cutbacks, denying them the very excesses you were privileged to have. It's sort of like, well, those environmental accords where the US calls out China and or other developing countries to cut back emissions to an equal or greater degree than itself.
R.K. ~
While I definitely believe your heart is in the right place and I applaud your intent, I’ve got to concur with David to some extent. I myself am from the Henry David Thoreau school of “Simplify, Simplify” and so I do believe I know where you’re coming from on this and I agree with your position up to a point.
If I had my way, we would do away with most if not all of the gift-giving and spend more time together, enjoying each other’s company and really getting more in touch with The Reason For The Season. But it seems that you and I are in the minority, and since we can only dictate our own actions and are responsible for our own behavior, and yet we wish to contribute to the joy of others, we must find some way to strike a balance.
When I was your age, I was (AT LEAST!) every bit as idealistic as you are now, and while I concede that our idealism can lead us on to do good things, as we gain life experience with age, however, we come to find that if we are to have some measure of happiness and peace with others, a more middle ground will have to be found in which to live between reality and our extreme idealism. We must find a way that does not compromise our basic principles, but which does not also preclude our getting along with others as much as it is possible (see Romans 12:18). It must be remembered that extremism in ANYTHING, even something positive, can often have (unintended) negative ramifications. A good example is the philosophy of Ayn Rand: while her Objectivism is founded in truth and is a solid theory of economics, etc., it is ultimately somewhat spoiled by her extremism (as well as her atheism).
Many years ago, I once also proposed the “giftless” Christmas concept to my family and it went over about as well for me as it did for you. So I adjusted my expectations and indirectly asked that those buying gifts for me, at least please refrain from economically supporting some of the worst human rights offenders. I did this by including (for a couple of years) a true story in the Christmas cards I gave out. The story, if you’re interested in reading it, can be found in the 2008, May 23rd post on my “STUFFS” Blog at this site. It’s titled “The 15 Days Of Christmas (A Communist China Tradition).” Although I have managed to get through to a few of the more spiritually enlightened people in my sphere, unfortunately, the message has still gone unnoticed by some. Yet there’s only so much we can do.
But I am certainly not entirely opposed to materialism as there is a great deal of benefit to free enterprise commercialism. For one thing, manufacturing means jobs and jobs means wealth and wealth leads to better, healthier, more comfortable, more progressive lives. It’s only when materialism becomes EXCESSIVE (there’s that concern about “extremism” in all of its forms again) that it impacts us in very negative ways. I think there is a very profound lesson about the “balance” I am referring to in the Matthew 26:6-13 Bible verses if we learn to read and understand the deep things of The Bible. These verses should not lead us to defeatism, but they should help us to put our experiences in proper perspective. While we are called to be responsible stewards and to do what we can (within reason), let’s not forget that if we could create a Heaven of Earth, then there would be no need for a Heaven in another realm. Nothing even remotely resembling a “Utopia” on Earth can come about until after our Lord returns – The Bible is clear on this – and expecting it to be otherwise only sets us up for inevitable frustration and disappointment.
R.K., I occasionally read your Blog because I recognize a bit of my old self in you, and because I respect your good intentions even if I think that some of your views are misguided by unrealistic idealism and missing information. However, I realize that you don’t know me, and so my comments might be unwelcome here - if so, say so, and I will refrain from commenting in the future.
But I agree with you in that I would prefer to do away with the over-the-top gift-giving at Christmas, especially since I never get what I really want anyway. I always get dumb books or stupid movies or something, when what I really want is... “real estate.” :o)
My Sister, may you BLESS AND BE BLESSED!
~ STMcC
<"As a dog returns to his own vomit, so a fool repeats his folly."
~ Proverbs 26:11>
Hi Rachael,
I completely agree with you and commend you. If I could, I'd give you a hearty handshake. You are a true revolutionary, defying the odds and kickin' some consumeristic assssss.
I know this is three yrs after the fact, but I started reading your posts today and couldn't stop! It's like everything I've been thinking has been laid out in a blog by some kind of "stranger twin." Hope you get to blogging again. You can reach a lot of people with your ideas. We have the same name: I'm bornagaingreen.wordpress.com. I'll put you on my links! Thanks for your honest writing.
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