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| The Basics | When did Christmas get so crazy?
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It's a bizarre wintertime ritual: masses of people rushing about, grinding their teeth and spending giant wads of cash on a strange array of gifts. Hark! It hasn't always been this way.
By MP Dunleavey
This year my aunt had a wild suggestion for the family. Rather than exchange any holiday gifts at all, what if we just got together, played games, hung out -- and gave Christmas a whole new focus. People, not presents.
My sister-in-law flung her arms around my aunt's neck and started sobbing with relief, while the rest of us cheered loudly and threw food. One of my cousins said now he could buy the boat he always wanted, and left, but other than that the family loved the idea of giving the holidays a new focus.
I don't mean we loved the idea of spending quality time together. I mean -- of course we did! (Hi Mom, uh, Dad.) But there was a distinct undercurrent, kind of like a tidal wave, of mutual understanding: Now no one had to go shopping.
Not to rub it in, but...
People hate to be reminded that the holidays are hell on your personal finances because we're all supposed to be overjoyed by the gift-giving spirit. But they are. Depending on which survey you read, during the holidays Americans last year spent an average of about $483 (The Conference Board), $853 (Roper), $1,600 (Consumer Credit and Counseling Service) or $1,656 (American Express).
Although retailers, who make half their profit this time of year, were worried that the economy might dampen people's spending, there doesn't seem to be any danger of that. In part they have the growing popularity (and convenience) of online shopping to thank. According to a Goldman Sachs, Harris Interactive report, so-called eSpending in November surged 22% over last year to a record $6.2 billion. OK, some of that was porn, but still.
Personally, I think the most telling holiday spending number was this: In a single day, the day after Thanksgiving -- supposedly the biggest shopping day of the year -- Wal-Mart reported sales of more than $1.43 billion.
When you see a number like that, you really have to ask yourself: Is this about celebrating Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, the Solstice, whatever? Or is it about exercising our constitutionally protected right to bear credit cards?
Dreading the holidaze
Like many Americans, Michele Miller, a public relations writer in San Antonio, has come to dread the madness. Miller estimates that she and her husband spend at least $3,000 at the holidays -- and their only child is just 7, still a fairly inexpensive, low-tech age to buy for. "Our list is topping 40 presents, and it's been running that way for several years now," she says. "By the time we add in our nuclear family, our extended family, friends, co-workers -- my husband's and mine -- the neighbors and my son's teachers, it's impossible to keep that list down."
Miller says she's entertained ways to cut back: "I've thought about sending out a letter: 'I'll quit if you quit,' " she says. "I don't know if that would help."
Maybe not. Surveys showed that last year people planned to cut back -- and ended up spending about $700 more than they intended. Surveys this year found that more than half those responding again plan to cut back. But will we?
When did Christmas get so crazy?
A few weeks ago, I found myself strolling through Bed, Bath & Beyond. Yes, strolling. Temporarily freed from the gift burden, my only errand was to get some plastic cups for a holiday party. But it was a great opportunity to play Martian and watch my fellow shoppers. People clutching metal boxes on wheels blindly hurtled around a cavernous building decorated with red and green shiny stuff, obviously pursuing some ritual that had a lot of meaning, judging by the tension in the air and the evil get-out-my-way looks they were throwing each other.
"Wow," I thought. "Was it always like this?" For the first time it occurred to me that this bizarre wintertime ritual, which we all take for granted, might not have existed once upon a time. Perhaps, centuries ago, when Bed, Bath & Beyond and Wal-Mart and Amazon.com weren't even a gleam in retailers' eyes, the holidays weren't about shopping.
I know, crazy -- right?
But according to Jock Elliott, author of a new book called "Inventing Christmas: How Our Holiday Came to Be," not only were the holidays once celebrated in very different non-shopping ways -- that time wasn't so long ago. Elliott, an amateur historian and former executive at ad agency Ogilvy & Mather, says that Christmas as we know it today didn't begin to take shape until after the publication of Clement Clarke Moore's famous poem, "The Night Before Christmas" in 1822. "The traditions that we think of as age-old traditions were invented in the 25-year period after that poem," he says. "One of them was gift-giving."
Christmas cards (the first one was printed in 1843), Christmas trees and even Santa Claus were concocted at that time, he says, and giving gifts was a fairly subdued event. "There wasn't much in the way of a family get-together or present-giving. They would give each other presents like a side of bacon or molasses . . . Through the 18th century, (Christmas) was largely celebrated in a raucous fashion outside the home."
"The Night Before Christmas" helped give birth to the notion that Christmas was more about children and a fat guy in a red suit than religion. But even then, it wasn't about shopping. If you recall, the poem describes only "visions of sugar plums," not DVDs, Xbox games or designer jeans.
The extremely condensed history of gift giving
Going as far back as the Greeks, Romans and Egyptians, the winter solstice was always a time for giving presents, celebrating the return of the sun and the anticipation of spring. These traditions were incorporated into early Christian practices and linked to the birth of Jesus, who got a bunch of presents from the Three Wise Men, although I doubt many of today's kids would react well to a gift of myrrh.
Earl W. Count describes the interweaving of holiday myth and history in detail in his book, "4,000 Years of Christmas: A Gift From the Ages." He's now deceased, but his widow, Alice Count, commented on how different our view of the holidays are today. "It's the commercialism of the modern period that has made (the holidays) crazy," she says.
Mrs. Count, who is 86, would know. She has lived through enough holidays to know that none of us need to be chained to traditions that stress us out and cause us to lose touch with any spirit of cheer and good will -- whether you're celebrating the return of the sun or the birth of the Son.
"Giving is a state of mind," she says. "I think it's important to give throughout the year. You see someone who needs something. That's your opportunity to give something. It may cost nothing. It may cost a little. The cost is not a part of the expression, it's the DOING that counts."
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