“Is Christmas too commercial” seems like a nonsense question to me. What should it be? Christmas is not any more commercial than it was when I was a kid. The season is still busy with disgruntled shoppers, with bustle, and with packages. Perhaps Christmas is about goodwill, about peace, about charity and joy and love, about taking time to be with our friends, to be with our family, and to reflect. Perhaps to a few, Christmas is about religion and the birth of the Savior. But not so much.

Instead of presents and shopping, should we all just get together and sing carols? Should we all just eat a whole lot and give thanks for our blessed lives? No malls. No shopping. No January credit card bills.

Money, shopping, presents – commerce is how we show joy. And that’s not new. It’s just the way it is. And besides, Christmas is as commercial as we make it. If we were so inclined we could ban presents and shopping and malls in our lives and give to charity and feel as much joy and love and goodwill as we pleased.

Money makes Christmas go around. As it turns out, a writer was hired by Montgomery Ward, the department store chain, to create a Christmas story to help sell its crap. Whereby, in 1939, was beget Rudolph. And you better believe that Montgomery Ward milked that for as long as they could.

SS