How We Lost the Magic of Christmas
By Patrick Davison
As I’ve grown up, I’ve realized that there is a piece missing every year as the holiday season approaches. For a long time, I couldn’t put my finger on it. But, in the last year or two, I’ve realized what it is; soulless corporations using this time to shove as much advertising as possible directly into us.
As far as holidays go, there are truly few as popular, or at least anticipated, as Christmas. A time of mirth, of joy, of peace on Earth, goodwill to men, you know…standard holiday fare. I’m not a child anymore. At the ripe old age of 23, I have certainly left my childhood behind as there was an undeniable magic to Christmas that I just haven’t felt in recent years. Maybe it’s like The Polar Express explained, the bell only works for as long as you believe in Santa. Or, the magic only exists until you stop believing. But even the magic of visiting family and spending time together has been lost (it feels like). My white Christmas has become increasingly gray for the last several years, and I think I finally know why.
To explore this, I interviewed a really good friend of mine, Matthew Buongiovanni. He is a stellar guy, and I couldn’t possibly think of anything bad to say about him. Bright, funny, and a co-host of two podcasts, Matt certainly has his hands full. Yet, he was more than happy to sit and chat about a pretty wide variety of topics with me; from the current socio-economic status in America, to the recent railroad strike, to political assassinations and even the dubious origins of Santa as we know him (I’m looking at you, Coca-Cola).
Despite the one hour run time of the… “podcast”, we mainly focused on corporations and their impact on Christmas and other holidays. Ultimately, the conclusion we drew was that the soulless companies whose prime objective was to generate revenue by basically any means necessary, has been exploiting the American people and their collective enjoyment of the happiest part of the winter months since they’ve been able to. As far as I can tell, it all began in 1931, when artist Haddon Sundblom drew the first image of Santa Clause as we know it. Of course, plump ol’ Saint Nicholas has been a staple of Christmas tradition since somewhere around the third century, but this form of him was much different from the one we know and love today.
Sundblom’s drawing is a prime example of monetizing and creating a product that outlives its intended purpose; from our modern interpretation of Santa, to the pandering in June that most companies have taken to. Truthfully, the stretch of time between Thanksgiving and Christmas has become a time of consumerism and forgetting the whole purpose of the original holiday. Thanksgiving especially has been completely forgotten about, or so it feels, and now is the customary celebration of gluttony that pregames the celebration of Black Friday (which isn’t a holiday, but sure is treated like one). That right there speaks volumes about the way the indoctrination of companies has set into our collective psyche as a country.
This holiday season, I invite each of you to remain true to the principals we hold dear, not the ones that we see on the screens in front of us. By doiing this, hopefully we will bring back a little bit of that magic that we have been missing.
