Here in Wheeling, the Christmas season begins every year a little early... Like, July. It is the phenomenon of the Festival of Lights. Beginning November 1, the free light show draws bus loads of primarily older people with nothing better to do than to get on a charter bus and gawk out their windows at the illuminated displays. Hot-wired two-dimensional illusions... a poor man's Disney... but, hey, it is something to put the city of the map other than a legacy of garbage cans, whore houses and stogies.
So in the spirit of the season that is about to begin... and before anyone else has a chance to bitch about it... here's my ripe.
Every year at Christmas time the average person is exposed daily to 347 sales messages on radio, TV, newspapers, magazines, outdoor billboards, point of purchase signs and specialty advertising such as those on calendars, disposable lighter and refrigerator magnets. The message is basically the same: Peace on Earth, Buy a Car from Me. Multiplied by the number of days in the ever-expanding season, that's a lot of advertising. And every year. And every year the average person is exposed to at least five dubiously profound cynics disdaining the commercialization of Christmas.
And while well-meaning sarcasm is seldom wasted on me, I for one am sick of people who are sick of the commercialization of Christmas. As though the True Meaning of Christmas can be spoiled by some greedy merchants ruthlessly exploiting an opportunity to eke out a living. If that spoils it for anybody, that's not my problem.
Any educated person understands that this holiday is a trumped-up Pagan ritual celebrating the fact that the darkest days of winter are past. no one really believes that Christ was born on December 25th, but since we don't know what day it was, why not pick a time when everybody is already in the mood for a party? And why not celebrate the gift of God's son by giving gifts to each other? What if just once a year we all get into the mode of thinking about giving to other people instead of just taking care of ourselves? And is somebody profits from this spirit, so what? Don't we all?
May some of us enjoy the cliches, the corny old Christmas carols and the reruns of seasonal TV specials. Maybe we like the crowded shopping malls, picking pine needles out of our carpets and being forced to spend a lot of time with our in-laws. Why let these cheap-shot cynics spoil the fun we have complaining
about it?
So if I hear any more narrow-minded hypocrites whining about the commercialization of Christmas, they're off my gift list. And that's it.