As soon as the carny barker's voice calls us all to ride the carousel of Christmas spending, I begin to hear on the radio and television how the "spirit of Christmas" is being debased, how much better it was when people didn't have credit cards. Well, I have a solution to the dilemma of the buyers in the Temple.
Imagine the havoc that would ensue if we really believed in the "spirit of Christmas." Let's say that in response to the Pavlovian bell-ringing of Christmas carols before Thanksgiving and circulars for midnight shopping at Zayre's, people decided to save their money and make their own gifts. "No," one mother says, "I refuse to buy the $100 doll with its $200 wardrobe. I am going to make soap and bread and jam and put up baskets for everyone." Imagine the loud brittle clicking of thousands of knitting needles making sweaters. Imagine the whine of table saws biting through pine boards for that doll house or cradle or knick-knack shelf. Let's say in general that people took raw materials and transformed them instead of buying finished goods at the Mall. Let's go even further and say that people made their own cards and didn't bother with wrapping paper (they used the Sunday comics instead), and only made gifts for the immediate family, preferring instead to send some of those home-made cards to the peripheral members. What do you think would happen?
The wailing and gnashing of business people would fill the air waves. We would be exhorted to do our Christmas duty and buy, we'd be bombarded with patriotism, Santas wrapped in tri-color bunting. Our capitalist system would go awry, all because people decided several things: first, to save their money rather than dig a deeper debt for themselves; second, to give gifts that had something of themselves woven into them; third, to really believe that "giving" is not the same as "handing over." I think that what people try to retrieve when they talk about the "spirit of Christmas" is something fine inside them selves that they can spend without looking for profit. Most of the year we struggle in the jungle to strengthen the privateness of our property. That can be a minimizing ordeal, turning us into units, individuals without umbilicals. At least once a year we officially get to be better than ourselves, to revive our communal natures, and people rush to do it. Unfortunately, commercial blather side tracks people into thinking that buying gifts is the same as being better, and we end up with our usual green Christmas.
I agree, I think we should return to the spirit of Christmas. People, save your money as well as your peace of mind. Don't buy gifts, make them, and give yourselves a chance the feel the tug of your finer natures.
Endings
Miami