Christmas under Capitalism
Christmas originally started out as a European pagan ritual and was hijacked by Christianity around the Middle Ages. It then had a bumpy relationship with the various types and sects of Christianity through the centuries, until ending up, somehow, as a tradition in classically Christian countries, coinciding with the celebration Jesus Christ’s birth [1]. With the rise of capitalism, first in the English industrial revolution of the late 1700s, Christmas was hijacked again by businesses. These businesses exploited the religious ceremony to sell more commodities. At first this tradition was popular amongst the wealthy, but it soon spread to the working class until everybody was buying presents and decorations.[2]. Novels like The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists by Robert Tressel demonstrate this well, with working class and bourgeoisie Christmas’ contrasted in this book. So why is Christmas such a massive holiday today, and how can a leftist deal with this mass consumerism without being a complete scrooge?
Christmas today is extremely commercialized. You have buy a tree, decorations, lights, wrapping paper, certain clothes, certain food, and, of course, presents for most of the people you know. All this spending and effort seems to be at odds with the idea of Christmas as a religious observance. While it could represent a Christian festival for some people, but the very essence of modern Christmas contradicts the religious interpretation of Christmas. This is because if you have enough spare income (or are coerced through advertising) to spend large sums of money on Christmas, then you most likely live in a More Economically Developed Country (MEDC), or whatever variation of that acronym you prefer. But the point is that Christmas is a tradition that is celebrated most ardently in politically western, richer countries. However, these “developed” countries have the lowest rates of religiousness in the world (with exceptions), because religion is most heavily observed in impoverished regions. More educated people are often less religious, and resultantly wealthier countries with better levels of education have less religious populations. That said, there must be a few people who are still into the religious interpretation of Christmas, but the majority of people in MEDCs have nothing to do with serious religion.
But I digress, why do we really go to such lengths for Christmas? The answer is simple, corporations. Advertising, government pressure, secondary social pressure, maybe religious pressure, pressure from public figures and entertainment and media. Everything you are exposed to is telling you that Christmas is important. News studios are decorated with tinsel and trees, TV shows and online games have Christmas themes, and christmas sales are advertised 24/7 on the radio.
Obviously advertising is a very coercive thing normally, but it gets rammed up at Christmas. You are told that you need this product and you must buy this and must come to this event. There is enormous pressure on everyone to give in to what you’re told, and this made up line about “tradition” makes many just assume its something they should take part it because its established.
Advertising also pulls on consumers’ heart strings and uses their emotions against them. Most of us have at least one person we feel close to or emotionally attached to, and many people have swatches of family and friends they are emotionally invested in. Corporations are telling you, directly or indirectly, that you can only show your emotions through commodities; that you only love your partner if you buy them X amounts of X products; that you’re a great parent if you buy your kids X product. The subconscious pair, for want of a better word, of this message, is saying that you are a bad parent if you don’t buy this and that you don’t love your partner if you don’t buy them this. This is what advertising normally does of course, but because there is such an apparently deep social tradition of Christmas and a very strong feeling of expectancy of participation by most people, that your emotions are particularly vulnerable at this point, so corporations exploit this.
We must not accept this. Love, affection and other emotions do not depend on commodities. It might seem obvious when you read it, but it’s a much harder truth to accept in daily life. Christmas is the pinnacle of capitalist consumerism and people are under immense pressure and it is not anyone’s fault if they fall to this capitalist illusion. You do not need to spend money on people to show them that you care about them. Real affection, especially between partners, is about a lot of things, but not about how much you buy. Of course food and other necessities and spending money to make life enjoyable (to a point) can be affectionate, but I am talking about the hyper consumerism that we see around Christmas and other commercialized events. It’s a little different with kids, because parents and family are their only means of consumption, but the parent-child relationship still should not be based on commodities alone. Of course one doesn’t have to love or even like their family (even though you’re told you should), so don’t force affection if there is none; and some parent-child relationships are only to provide the means of survival to the child and don’t have to be affectionate or emotional, but if they are emotional, as most are, then it shouldn’t wholly be based on consumption.
It would be detrimental to base all your relationships on commodities because then you might suddenly have no money and everyone will dislike you for no fault of your own, because money is no guarantee of morality and kindness, often the opposite; and the people who work least in society have the most money, and those that work most have the least. That might seem blindingly obvious but it can’t hurt to reaffirm the message.
We are told that Christmas is all about giving kindness, and thankfulness, not ruthless consumerism. This view is naive and liberal. This is merely another subliminal message that has been drilled into your head by everything supposed to influence you! Firstly, kindness and giving are not values most people embody at Christmas, as a lot of present giving, not all, is done grudgingly, because we feel we have to do it. Buying presents to pretend you care about someone or because you think you should because the box in the corner told you to shows that your perception of kindness has been warped by capitalism aswell. Kindness can also be shown in a multitude of other ways than just giving of commodities. Be affectionate, spend time with someone, help someone, listen to their problems, have interesting conversations with them, care for them, go walk in nature with them, or whatever else you feel is cool to do with the people you are emotionally invested in and want to show affection to. Gift giving can be a part of it of course, but it is naturally not the centerpiece of affection.
With all the money spent on gifts for the holidays, it really is a shame about those 21,000 people starving to death everyday [3], or those 3.5 billion people without adequate sanitation [4], or the 3 billion people living on less than $2.50 a day [5]. “But I support all these charities so I’m off the hook, right?” Charities do perform very important and brilliant work to poor people around the world, as does the UN and other charity-like operations, but reckless consumerism by those in the first world is not just some abstract phenomenon, but is closely linked to poverty. How does plastic in your cracker gift get made? By refining oil and letting out loads of pollution, which contributes to climate change, which causes droughts and more intense hurricanes, and higher seas. Which countries does climate change affect most? Oh yeah, poor countries, because they have fewer resources to deal with disasters and are more vulnerable to them in the first place, and most less “developed” countries are geographically in a worse place than MEDCs when it comes to the impact of climate change. And then all the Christmas dinner that’s gorged on when 795 million people are malnourished [6], and we use loads of electricity with Christmas lights that wastes energy that is probably generated by burning fossil fuels, and you know why that’s bad.
Additionally, spending your personal resources on this frankly weird religious/corporate tradition thing is a waste, if you are thinking of real change. The only way humanity can really be emancipated and become free of poverty is through global revolution, and if you are the most realistic you can possibly be about it, Christmas is a big waste of your time. Spend your Christmas money on buying leftist literature, or more practical methods of change, like “tools,” if you catch my drift…
I’m not just trying to guilt you to death here (only a little bit), but actually mass consumption is harmful. It directly and indirectly affects billions of people poorer than you and makes their lives worse in the vast majority of cases. I’m not saying don’t be happy on Christmas, but don’t over consume, and I don’t just mean on food. Your actions have consequences, even if they aren’t presented to you in front of your damn face with a flashing arrow pointing to them. It would be hard just to end Christmas all together, but you can take steps to make your celebrations less harmful. Such as making sure the wrapping paper you use is from recycled paper; use less lights or at least not flashing lights; try and buy eco-friendly products or just things that you know are trustworthy or locally made. You could buy people useful presents, like a book by Karl Marx or something else that might actually make someone think differently and educate themselves.
By all means, do donate to charity and it will probably do some good stuff (research charities because some are shitty), but real permanent change won’t come about through charity. The only proper change is through revolution, so if you can direct your resources at that then that would be rather useful. This article isn’t the place to discuss preparations for revolution, but I’m sure you can find somewhere on the internet that is. Most of you probably aren’t that politically devoted to invest in the best form of change, so just do the little things, its better than nothing. It won’t make a difference, you say? I’m just one person in billions, you say? The power of the individual is meaningless, you say? Well then why the hell are you on a leftist page. People have the true power if we can just learn how to use it. United we can do anything, defeat any evil, and complete any positive act. Educate and spread our leftist message. Leave corporate Christmas in the dust, and move onwards towards revolution and change!
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