There comes a time every year that every American seems to love and hate all at once, the Christmas season. The last few months of the year add a certain amount of stress to each family to perform in the rituals of the festival that is December. Lights, Christmas decorations and trees, Holiday parties, family, and charity all trying to dig in to one’s bank account while they try and stay in the black. It seems like this time of the year, all 50 states have gone Christmas crazy, caroling through grocery stores and malls, fighting for the last must-have toy of the year so that their kids will not feel like Christmas was all for not. But what about those who do not participate? Are they the heretics of this Christian holiday? Or are they the Scrooge, so cold hearted that not even the best eggnog can bring them joy, and that is the problem. The doxa of the need to participate in Christmas silences other cultures and ideologies while pressuring those who do participate in to consuming every bit of the holiday with the stigma that if they do not, they are either a miser or too poor to be able to buy the joy that everyone else has.
“Everyone celebrates Christmas right?” is a statement that seems to hold true to many Americans, even non-Christians and this is not just pluralistic ignorance that they do. The Pew Research Center even found in a 2013 study that 81% of non-Christian Americans celebrate the holiday but as the put it “testifying to the holiday’s wide acceptance – or, at least, its unavoidability – in American society.” (Pew Research Center). It is true that most people celebrate Christmas but the keyword in that sentence being “unavoidability”. During the last weeks of November and all the way through December, Christmas has infected all walks of life. Grocery stores play Christmas music, there are sales at every department store, families decorate their homes with lights, and it is hard to find a channel on television that 
isn’t playing some sort of holiday movie. But what does that mean for all those people that choose not to celebrate it? Hegemony has slowly silenced all of those cultures by selling Christmas to Americans (Ott 142). Christianity is the dominant religion and consumerism is the dominant ideology in our society, forcing all of the non-believing socialists to either participate in the fun and games or be silenced under the cover of carols. The majority of those who find it important has silenced those who either have their own plans or different holidays to celebrate causing pluralistic ignorance that everyone is touched by the spirit of the season (Noelle-Neumann) (Griffin). As one Muslim women blogged “The time of year as a Muslim where I am asked by co-workers and friends, ‘What are you doing for Christmas?’ ‘Why are you not decorating?’ and ‘Will you be attending any Christmas parties?’ Usually my response is always the same, ‘I don’t celebrate Christmas.’” (Nubee). In her blog posted on The Huffington Post website, she explains what it was like growing up Muslim in a Christian dominated society during a Christian holiday that dominates society. “As an African-American born to Muslim converts, most of my extended family members are Christian and celebrate Christmas. It was an ongoing question for my parents as we grew up on how to participate in Christmas traditions with their families, if at all. And, they also had to consider what and how they would teach their children about the celebration of Christmas as Muslims.” (Nubee). It is a challenge for people to keep their own faith while everyone else around them is pressuring them to perform in the rituals the rest of the world seems to be a part of.
What if the lack of participation is not because of faith? Then it must be because they have been jaded in some way by Christmas and need a revival of spirit! A story which is repeatedly told by television like the adaptation of Charles Dickens’ “The Christmas Carol” or “It’s a Wonderful Life” and of course Dr. Seuss’ “How the Grinch Stole Christmas”. In every one of these tales we see how the miser, the grumpy and the downright suicidal just need to be forced in to loving Christmas again and everything will be better. As you can see in the clip of the Grinch, after he has tried to steal Christmas from the masses to try and ruin it for them their joy has not subsided but has stayed in full glory. As they sing their song, the Grinch has realized the error of his ways (by way of a growing heart) and that Christmas cannot be stopped so he might as well join them (Seuss). In this story though, the material items do not matter, it is the feeling of Christmas. But that is not how the rest of America feels about it, they love their toys and this brings us to the true meaning of Christmas.
Christmas is the holiday that is to be bought and sold and then given to the children under the perception that their gifts are given to them by a red suited man for being good. But for the parents, it is a time when the spend their savings or go in debt to make sure their children are as happy as the Nintendo64 kid in the clip (raw64life). “Christmas was invented first and foremost as a commercial event. Everything that was revived or invented – decorations, cards, crackers, collections of carols, going to a pantomime, visiting Santa Claus and buying presents – all had one thing in common: they could be sold for profit.” (Whiteley 20). What Sheila Whiteley is explain here is the inception of Christmas as a consumer Holiday, a time to spend your way to joy. Americans have seen this time of the year to purchase all of those things they did not have money for the rest of the year, the question is how do they have the money to buy it now? Most likely they do not but the “black Friday sales” are what gives them the feeling that they are saving money and also the feeling of Christmas according to an article in the International Journal of Consumer Studies. “Finally, atmospheric factors influence consumers behaviours directly through interaction with their emotions (Mehrabian & Russell, 1974). Most studies show the influence of atmospherics upon consumers behaviours (e.g., Argo, Dahl, & Manchanda, 2005).” (Robinot 608). This is also pushing the conspicuous consumption of the American people (Ott 149). The idea that this is the time of the year to give and receive all those “wishes” you would never have spent money on before is unhealthy for those who do not have the income to support it. But this consumerism is just as a defining trait of the American person during the holiday season as making Christmas cookies. “In the postmodern era, consumption has a central role and fulfils several objectives such as recreating social ties that were lost after the disaggregation of traditional referents (e.g., family, village, neighbourhood, religious community) (Firat, 1991). Consumption may also be used as a means of self-expression and as a vote in order to indicate approval or opposition to certain practices (Shaw, Newholm, & Dickinson, 2006).” (Robinot 606). In other words, the participation of buying is just as ia part of the Christmas spirit as decorating a pine tree in ones living room. And it seems advertisers know this as the commercials play to the emotions of what it means to participate in Christmas.
In the Apple commercial, the feeling of Christmas is captured by the iPhone by the son who seemingly was not participating in the traditional acts of Christmas. He was able to produce a film capturing his family during the celebration, bringing joy to everyone in the video (Apple). It infers that buying Apple products make you happy on not just a material level but an emotional one. But Apple products are notoriously expensive, what about those who are too poor to buy one? Does that mean that they are not happy, or at the very least not as happy as those who can produce a family video in the time it takes to bake cookies? Bringing this discussion to the next defining trait of Christmas, charity.
In the depiction of Dickens’ “The Christmas Carol”, Kermit and Miss Piggy play the role of the Cratchit family. The poor family that seemingly needs nothing for Christmas but each other according to Tiny Tim’s song. He sings of family and forgiveness and even giving to those in need (Henson). Pretty selfless of a boy who is dying and poor to think of others. But that is the point, one must give to include themselves in the Christmas season, no matter what position in life. This goes back to the Christian ideologies built from the original story of Christmas. Joseph and Mary had their baby (Jesus) in a barn and were brought gifts by wise men who were told of his coming by an angel. Jesus is considered God’s gift to the world but the wise men also brought this poor family gifts to of gold, myrrh, and frankincense. The whole story and the New Testament relay a story of giving and helping your fellow man. This charity is relived each Christmas season as if to say the charity is not as important during the rest of the year. This common ideology is explained by Whiteley “Charity is central to the Christmas invented by the new urban middle class. If what was invented was commercial out of instinct, it was charitable out of a sense of fear and guilt.” (Whiteley 22). And according to a Christian writer Jason Byassee, the gift giving is obligatory “The heart of Christmas is the same in theology as it is in popular practice: the gift. When we give something of ourselves in gifts to those we love, we catch a glimpse of the God who gives the whole of Godself in the gift of Jesus. Like any gift, this one can be refused, else it wouldn’t be a gift. The effort legally and rhetorically to shame those who will not replicate Christian language in this season suggests, irony of ironies, the turning of this gift into an obligation, with punishments attached for enforcement.” (Byassee 170). That means that charity is then turned in to an obligation rather than a choice which fundamentally means it is no longer a gift. As a culture, America even pokes fun at the gift giving process with white elephant gift exchanges where the object is to give notoriously bad, strange or quirky gifts and then trade until you find an actual one you might want. But it is all for not because on Christmas day you hope that someone got you the best gift for you which is inherently selfish but most Americans have been a part of this interpellation with constantly being shown this action throughout one’s childhood (Ott 140).
In the famous scene from “A Christmas Story” Ralphie finally receives the gift he was pining over the entire movie; his dreams have true in this sense (Clark). The movie is narrated by a man reminiscing about a very memorable Christmas from his past arguably because it was the one where he got exactly what he wanted. Is this feeling of gratification ever supposed to leave us we get older though? Does culture teach us that then when we reach the age where we now play the role of Santa Clause, we should no longer expect to get what we want? Or does that feeling of want and material never leave because it was so ingrained by the media that
surrounded Christmas? According to a quick search in YouTube, that is exactly what it means. One does not grow out of wanting to get gifts, as a culture we have learned to expect it every time December rolls around. And there is another thing we have learned to expect this time of the year.
The action of the Santa ringing his bell for the Salvation Army is not new to anyone who has to go the grocery store between November and December. They will be out there ringing the bell with the red pot while customers dig in their pockets for change as they walk out. But in this video, it shows the little girl being taught how important to give this time of year. The voice over explains how she might not remember her gifts she will get but she will definitely remember what she had given (The Salvation Army USA). The video seems light but in fact it is still teaching the idea of Christmas being the only time of the year when it is necessary to give rather than the rest of the year, as if homelessness and hunger only happens during the winter. Even different cultures have observed this as time for giving told by the Muslim blogger from earlier, “However, during the holidays there are often charity drives through different organizations. Because I would ordinarily give charity any time of year, I donate to these charities with the intention of giving back.” (Nubee). But this charity is out of guilt that while the American people indulge themselves, giving a small amount of pocket change can satiate that feeling that they need to do something for not just their families, but the poor. It is not just American culture but the most Western cultures that observe the Christmas tradition are equally transgressed with the guilt.
As seen in this heavy-handed ad from the UK branch of the Salvation Army, they tell the viewer flat out that these unfortunate people need help and they should give whatever they can (The Salvation Army UK with the Republic of Ireland). Charity is not wrong by any means, but the Christmas guilt giving is not making anyone better for it, it is only obligating them to give once a year.
But the mechanism that is Christmas is so large and ingrained in to American life that changing it to a more conscious form of understanding thy neighbor and enjoying life for what it is without being bought and sold seems impossible. Other cultures are either forced to participate or misunderstood for not joining in with a holiday that is not their own. Those that do not wish to observe it for personal reasons will be seen as a “Scrooge” or a “Grinch” constantly bombarded with carols as they walk through the grocery stores and children will still be taught that if they act “good” all year, free presents will be received on the morning of December 25th brought to them by a red suited man with a beard. But it can be helped to change the guilt that comes with giving if people understand where the guilt is coming from. That it is not an obligation forced by a religion but that if they feel so inclined, they can give gifts to their friends or to charity all year around.
Works Cited
Apple. Apple iPhone Christmas Commercial 2013. 17 Dec 2013. 12 Dec 2017. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v76f6KPSJ2w>.
Byassee, Jason. “From the Sacristy the Christian War on Christmas.” Homily Service 43.1 (2010): 168-170.
Clark, Bob. “A Christmas Story” – Ralphie opens gift. 23 Nov 2014. 12 Dec 2017. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58DnxT54STU>.
Griffin, Em. A First Look at Communication Theory. 7th edition. McGraw-Hill, 2008.
Henson, Brian. Muppets – Bless Us All. 10 Oct 2008. 12 Dec 2017. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEtXQku79q0>.
Noelle_nuemann, Elizabeth. “The Spiral of Silence:A Theory of Public Opinion.” The Journal of Public Communication 24.2 (1974): 43-51.
Nubee, Sajdah. Do Muslims Celebrate Christmas? 15 Dec 2015. 12 Dec 2017. <https://www.huffingtonpost.com/sajdah-nubee/do-muslims-celebrate-chri_b_8799844.html>.
Ott, Brian L. and Robert L. Mack. Critical Media Studies. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2014.
Pew Research Center. Christmas also celebrated by many non-Christians. 23 Dec 2013. 12 Dec 2017. <http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2013/12/23/christmas-also-celebrated-by-many-non-christians/>.
raw64life. Nintendo Sixty-FOOOOOOOOOOUR. 26 Mar 2006. 12 Dec 2017. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFlcqWQVVuU>.
Robinot, Elisabeth, Myriam Ertz and Fabien Durif. “Jingle Bells or ‘green’ bells? The impact of socially responsible consumption principles upon consumer behaviour at Christmas time.” International Journal of Consumer Studies 41.6 (2017): 605-617.
Seuss, Dr. Grinch’s Heart Grows. 19 Dec 2016. 12 Dec 2017. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMV0nQItqUs>.
The Salvation Army UK with the Republic of Ireland. Imagine Christmas without The Salvation Army TV Advert 2016 | 60″. 21 Nov 2016. 12 Dec 2017. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiGhRSRH6cQ>.
The Salvation Army USA. The Salvation Army | Give. 21 Nov 2016. 12 Dec 2017. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXdAQoVjfVI>.
Whiteley, Sheila. “Christmas, Ideology and Popular Culture .” Edinburg University Press. 2008. EBSCOhost.
YouTube. what i want for christmas. 12 Dec 2017. 12 Dec 2017. <https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=what+i+want+for+christmas>.
Stuff 