I've noticed something about that - no one else is really paying attention to any official start date for preparing for Advent. We have already had numerous retail events designed to begin before the season begins: Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, Cyber Monday, Giving Tuesday (assuming you have any funds left over after the first three sales opportunities). I'm not trying to take anything away from the retail trade. More power to them as they seek to help people decide on their Christmas gift giving dilemmas (What do I buy? What should I spend? Where should I shop? When do I drop? - you can see the progression). No, certainly businesses need to capitalize on the market opportunity that Christmas gift giving presents to the retail world. A good business climate is positive news for our local economy.
But there is something about this whole thing that troubles me. It isn't the people who are trying to take advantage of the best market sales they can find. And as I've already stated, I've no real issue with businesses who are just trying to make a living. As I think about it, it's really the over-all picture, not just a component here or there. If we believe that Christmas is a celebration of God's interaction with the world by sending his Son to come and live with humans, to show them how to live as God's people, then somewhere along the development of the season, somewhere, somehow, somebody or somebodies realized the power of capitalizing on the people's desire to celebrate that realization. This time of year has become a breaking point for some businesses - an effective Christmas season filled with sales and profits can go a long way to bolstering the bottom line. Even as I write this, I've received several popup email notices that Cyber Monday is coming to a close and I'd better cash in on the deals while they are still available. Quickly, I "Googled" the phrase "capitalizing on Christmas" and in .51 seconds, I was given links to over 398,000 websites that are talking about the same thing.
I know... it really isn't news. It's been like this for a long time. I wish it were different. In a perfect world, I wish that the businesses would be able to achieve stability year round and consumers would be much more adept at preparing for special holidays by not allowing themselves to be lured into purchases just because the days are growing short. After all, Christmas Day is still the 25th of December. It isn't like no one knows that! December 25th falls on the same day every single year. Yet the climate we are in propels us forward to that day like we've all forgotten that little fact.
I suppose we could have started shopping earlier. Even as I typed that, I heard it as soon as I read it. We could have started earlier. That's a stark reminder of what we are facing. What do you think? How can we overcome this huge snowball of consumerism while treating business owners and consumers alike with fairness, kindness, and with our patronage - a key thing that makes America thrive?
On some levels, I can only do what I trust to be true. Celebrate the season for the reason the season is based upon: an opportunity to remember what God's love and grace are all about. All the other stuff is just clutter than gets in the way of being able to do that with clarity, honesty, and integrity.
How about you?
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