Even though I hardly ever hear or see the word "Christmas", I am amazed that some people still blame it for commercialism in December. People with this idea should start instead by looking at our American way of life. Holidays are like magnifying glasses that intensify traits that are already inherent to the culture regardless of the holiday. Commerce and calendar are so deeply enmeshed in American culture that, whether we want to admit it or not, most of our holidays would hardly be recognizable if it wasn't for the commercially produced trappings. The look of our modern Santa comes from a famous illustration for Coca Cola. Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, one of our most popular cultural icons started out as a souvenir produced by Montgomery Wards store in 1939.

There was no clear line dividing church and marketplace in December or at Easter time through the 1950's. Stores often brimmed over with Christian figures and symbols. One in particular, Wanamakers, in Philadelphia, transformed the department store interior into a "Grand Court", a cathedral-like place where a tradition of religious celebration was established in the first two decades of the twentieth century. It included what was believed to be the largest pipe organ in the world, and complimentary hymnals were handed to customers upon entering the store, a new edition each year. If I stumbled upon something like this while shopping today I'd think I was hallucinating. Criticism of Christmas consumerism began almost as soon as the consumption began. From the extensive day to day records written down in diaries by middle class women as well as sales clerks, that have survived from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, we can see that there were doubts about materialism, the ostentatious nature of gift giving, the anxiety of social obligation, exasperation with crowds, depression due to changes in or lack of family ties, disappointment over not getting the right gift, and consideration for the poor. All these things are associted with our modern Christmas. But even back then, all these concerns went hand in hand with the excitement and joy of shopping. To go "a Christmasing" was synonymous with shopping sprees. Religious reformers always sought ways to clean up ambivalence that occurred when Christmas met marketplace, but religious expressions of reproach toward the Christmas bazaar were always more than balanced by acceptance of Christmas abundance. Concerns about Christmas consumer culture and religion have always gone hand in hand as perennial features of the season. An odd example of this is how the "Keep Christ in Christmas" movement of nearly half a century ago turned out to be not a protest of commercialism but a consecration of it. Merchants and banks across the country joined the cause, and the holy family started showing up in store windows and interiors where they hadn't been seen before, as a merchandising mode. From the beginning Christmas and consumerism have played a game of attraction and rejection.

It's not my intention to define the content of Christmas or to tell people where to find it except to encourage a wholistic view of the holiday, appreciating that it means different things to different people. We don't need to be the ones who seek to limit it's venues. I say let it flourish where it may. I heard someone from the church-going community say "Christmas can't be found where we shop, so it doesn't matter if it becomes "Holiday"outside of church". It's true there is a devotional experience one wouldn't seek out in the media or in stores or city centers anymore. But there's no reason we can't have both. The babe in the manger is accompanied by a whole panorama of song, feast, light, Santa and presents. Shopping doesn't stop people from having a religious experience. On the contrary, I think any suggestion of Christmas in any of it's locations would help to bring people to church. If church-goers want to bring folks out of stores to have a strictly devotional experience in church, more power to them. I don't personally see this happening in any big way.

Christmas stands out as the country's peak consumer festival. As such, it comes to us with more packaging, posturing and presentation than any other day of the year. Every year we let retailer's strategies and slogans define for us what Christmas is. Last year Macys decided it was no longer Christmas, it was "Holiday". TV commercials, newspapers and magazines drum "holiday" into our heads. The apprehension that customers will feel offended by "Christmas" is unfounded, and runs contrary to everything we know about December's consumer history. I'm sure there's no proof that shoppers have ever withheld patronage because "the C word" was used in a slogan. But stores will do anything they imagine is necessary to bring in the most shoppers. Retailers didn't invent holidayization but their endorsement of it has supplied fertile ground for it to flourish in. The appropriation of Christmas as the day for gift giving for the sake of social reform in the early nineteenth century played an important role in the creation of modern Christmas. Now gift giving plays an equally important role in dismantling Christmas. The influence of merchants has completed a cycle.We mustn't underestimate the importance of communicating our concerns about fair treatment of Christmas to stores. In the "Take Action" section I am recommending shopping only at Christmas friendly stores. I encourage you to send your ideas in too.