Merry Chri$tma$

As we hurtle once again toward another holiday season, it's time to prepare for certain holiday "traditions" courtesy of our modern society. One of my personal favorites is being reminded again about that recognition of any other holiday but Christmas sparks some sort of theoretical "war on Christmas." Blood pressures will raise, righteous indignation will flex and in the end it will all amount to the same thing it does every year - much to do about nothing.

Two, we're going to see a glut of advertising that promises you can fill the space under your tree with every gift your loved ones desire for a lot less of your hard-earned dough. Even though politicians will tell you how broken our economy is and how the current administration is stifling job growth and jeopardizing the very foundation of our capitalist democracy, Christmas advertising is already in full swing to offer those once-in-a-lifetime deals you just won't be able to live without.

We're in crisis, we're broke, but go shop.

If both of these things are true, and hey they must be to be represented so strongly in the media, then we're being sold a big fat crap cake covered in sugary frosting. But somehow we buy it and gobble it up year after year without question because we've come to believe two very distinct things: it's American to celebrate Christmas (ChristianityTM), and it's American to shop till you drop (capitalism.)

Let the holidays begin!

I've been thinking about this recently and it occurs to me we've all been nationally and culturally hoodwinked. At the end of the day all these Black Friday bargains can really guarantee is that you will take time AWAY from your loved ones to embark on the odyssey of long lines, rude crowds and a scarcity of goods and gadgets that will be obsolete by Valentine's Day.

I finally put these two things together thanks to watching an eye-opening movie called The Story of Stuff, that talks about how our consumer glut is crushing the planet. Now when I see these happy, festive, bright and musical ads meant to part me from my money, I feel anything BUT the holiday spirit. WORSE... I find the manipulation to spend, spend, spend a far more insidious violation of Jesus than simply saying, "Happy Holidays" rather than "Merry Christmas."

If, as the movie suggests, our consumer-driven society is a purposeful coercion by big business to ensure we as a culture remain in an endless, destructive cycle wasting our precious (and finite) resources, cheating our fellow man and identifying our value through our buying power, then Christmas stopped being about Christ decades ago.

Instead we need to call it what it really is... Chri$tma$.

Ironically enough nobody in the media bothered to whip all of us up into a frenzy about this consumer takeover of a religious holiday. Essentially we've been duped not to care because it's American to celebrate Christmas, and it's American to shop till you drop.

"It's the most wonderful time of the yeaaarrrrrr..."

Not so coincidentally it keeps getting worse every year to the point they're not even trying to hide it anymore. And this year it's become just plain stupid.

Each year the clock moves backward on when "Black Friday" should start to the point of absurdity. This is the most important day on the calendar for retail - so much so that it trumps any "holiday" it is supposed to help you celebrate. Consider that it is so named "Black Friday" because it's the one day of the year expected to bring stores back "into the black" (or make a profit.) It's about money - your money - and they want to wring as much out of you as they can get. Stores open earlier and earlier to "get a jump" on their competition in effort to attract your business. They create this illusion of urgency that works everyone up into a buying frenzy and takes the focus OFF the more minor holiday of Thanksgiving.

Despite its name, Thanksgiving has effectively ceased being about a moment of reflection, generosity and gratitude and instead turned into a consumer launch pad. After you load up on more food than you should ever eat (which keeps the grocery stores in business) the pistol fires and you're aimed directly at the mall. This advertising suggests whether subtly or outright that you aren't in the "spirit" if you aren't somehow spending your dwindling supply of cash like everyone else.

This adds that other ol' American tradition (competition) to the already combustible combo of ChristianityTM and capitalism. In other words...if you're not a part of this process, then you're just a big fat loser.

Think of the Target ad that features a crazed woman in a track suit (and fashionable high heels and pearls) who is literally in physical training to attack Black Friday with fervor the minute the doors open at... MIDNIGHT.

That's right. While we used to be able to spend those precious hours in the middle of the night sleeping off our tryptophan coma, now we're being encouraged and stirred up to hit the shops to get the very best deals of the season the very MINUTE Thanksgiving is done.

Remember the "good ol' days" when it used to be 7:00 a.m? I personally never went because it seemed an ungodly hour to me to get up and brave any kind of crowd, and no one wants to see me deprived of sleep and muscling for the latest video game.

I'd much rather pay the extra $5, $10, $20 or $50 than come up with bail money.

Apparently Target is hoping to tap into a new consumer base with these ridiculous new hours. Now they're catering to all those insomniacs who couldn't sleep anyway because their low paying jobs don't cover all their bills, so naturally they would get the most out of a Black Friday bargain that demands they spend, spend, spend or else they're just not worth a damn. These are the poor saps stuck on the endless, frustrating treadmill living off of stimulants like caffeine and sugar just to make it from one day to the next, who could use a lil' pick-me-up like the instant gratification of shopping.

It is, after all, their patriotic duty.

Of course, not to be outdone Walmart has opted to open their doors at 10:00 p.m. ON Thanksgiving.

That means these underpaid workers who bear the burden of the externalized cost of these Black Friday bargains must now take time away from their family so that you can take time away from your family to buy that thing for your kid he'll want you to replace within the year.

This is modern Chri$tma$ in America. Not quite the Norman Rockwell paintings from a few mere decades ago, is it?

"But Ginger... this is how the capitalist engine runs. They provide goods, we buy the goods that keep people working and the money flowing."

Really? Let's think about that a minute. Last I checked the money was flowing like gangbusters TOWARD the Walton family, who rank at the top of the wealthiest people in the country with a net worth in the BILLIONS (with a B.) That's great for them and all, but how did they amass that mind-boggling wealth - and, more importantly - what are they doing with it? Sure the Waltons are part of the top 1% and, technically, "job creators" for many, many Americans...but the jobs they create keep the majority of their workers living at or below the poverty line, which forces them to shop AT WALMART. So the money is flowing... but its flowing mostly in one direction.

Hint: It's away from you.

Obviously these folks never watched the capitalism message on Looney Tunes, which teaches that those who have must invest back into society for the benefit of all. You run a business, you get a profit. You put that profit back into your business, working with other businesses to expand so that you both can create jobs. The better jobs you create, the more money comes back into your business and the more society around you flourishes as a whole.

That means wealth in capitalism isn't a right, it's a responsibility. Hording profits for personal gain only benefits in one direction... and that's not capitalism. That's greed. Since we're talking about how capitalism marries with Christianity, let's consider that the Bible has a lot to say about greed and the love of money, not the least of which that it is impossible to serve two masters.

We'll pause slightly so you can put that together. That ding you just heard was the light bulb going off above your head.

The idea behind Walmart is to provide goods at the lowest prices so you can get the most out of your money. This sounds beneficial to the consumer, but let us consider the true cost of that "rollback" bargain. They outsource the manufacturing, which results in the negative impact of cheap industry on the environment. Moreover, and most importantly, they oppress a struggling job market with a glut of low paying jobs people are forced to take to survive as part of America's working poor. So Walmart amasses their personal fortune rather than invest it back into their workers and products, taking shortcuts to make even more money.

And now they want you to take time away from your family so you can give them more of your hard-earned cash.

Here's the kicker... we'll all do it. We all, literally, buy this flim-flam willingly and happily as part of the tried and true American Capitalist Competitive Christian tradition. We accept all this as part of the consequences of living in a capitalist society that puts our own personal wealth above the goodwill Jesus sought to bring to the world. It's the 800-pound gorilla in the room we never talk about because the fact is, we as humans like to keep our routines even if we know they aren't ideal, especially if it keeps our perceived sacrifices at a minimum. We literally buy into the lie that things aren't so bad if we can live like everyone else and have things like everyone else that we never bother to look behind the curtain to see who is really running the show. To do so would mean we'd have to take responsibility in OUR part of raping and pillaging the planet. This would introduce uncomfortable change on our part and we'd much rather live in denial.

In fact we're so afraid of change and fight it right up to the bitter end, when we're all toppling off the cliff one after the other like the sad little lemmings we are. This day is coming, my friends. And we'll only have ourselves to blame.

Right now the sacrifices belong to someone else and are easy to ignore. Sure some third world person is living off of $2 a day to manufacture our brand new high heels that will be out of fashion by spring but hey... at least he has a job. And working in a sweatshop builds character, especially when you're 10.

And here's the sad part. The things we're buying are designed SPECIFICALLY to become obsolete within six months so that you must trek BACK to the store to buy the next new thing at low cost, perpetuating this destructive system.

This is the dirty little secret of a consumer-driven society. Fat cat corporations purposefully design their goods to be as temporary as possible so that you have to keep coming back for more. In a country that uses way more than its share of resources, we are encouraged and TRAINED to dispose of these goods as quickly as possible. We've made this our way of life despite the fact it's completely unsustainable. This is a system that races toward its own extinction by taking more than it can possibly replace, especially when it comes to our natural resources. Yet the things we need (or to be more specific, want) get more and more disposable so that waste is encouraged. Whether a $50 pair of jeans or a $500 laptop computer, goods are designed to wear out, fall out of fashion or simply become obsolete within months of purchase.

Technology, especially, has made this extremely easy to pull off with consumer consent. What you stand in line for at midnight on "Black Friday" will be a thing of the past come NEXT year... or even next month. Yet somehow we'll all fall for it again when the next gadget does that one thing that our current gadget doesn't do.

Case in point: This past year I held a contest on my pop culture blog, giving away a brand new Kindle. I decided to spring for the high end model at a whopping $189 so I could get the most exposure for my blog, my books, etc. This made sense from a marketing standpoint.

I mean, I'm a capitalist too. I have goods to sell and I want to attract and keep my customers loyal by providing things they will enjoy and tell all their friends about so I can keep money flowing in my direction. I'm by no means at the level of the 1%, but like every good American I aspire to make it there one day, using nothing more than the talent God gave me and the sweat of my brow.

I also have to use some marketing sense, and in this case that meant offering a big prize to let my desired consumers - readers - know I exist and I have goods to offer them.

So I sprung for the $189 Kindle in May. Come November, for just $10 more, I could have purchased the Kindle Fire, Amazon's answer to the more expensive iPad.

Instead of being happy about the new technology I feel a bit cheated to tell you the truth. Even worse, my husband's Kindle (the $139 version) can fetch $70 at the pawn shop whereas a brand new model now runs about $79. This price drop occurred within a year after he purchased the original. That encourages that he dump the model he currently has, which has now become the less desirable gadget, to spend that money AGAIN to get the more desirable tablet.

This happens all the time with computers and cell phones - forcing people to replace them every year or two to keep better engaged in our equally communication-driven society.

So we're sold goods to keep us technologically advanced, but they're just disposable enough that we can keep the cycle going indefinitely within months after purchase. This increases waste AND demands we take more from our planet to manufacture the new, cooler, more desirable goods.

Think about that when you head to the mall on midnight Friday to buy that latest gadget you think you can't live without now.

The truth is you can live without it. The truth is you can strip away all the consumer brouhaha and still enjoy your holiday season and really, TRULY, put Christ back in Chri$tma$.

It's as simple as taking out the $$.

And technically you can skip the turkey and gorging yourself on so much food that you could - and probably should - feed a third world country this Thanksgiving. Though we disdain the obese in our nation, the sad fact is America is trained and encouraged to be gluttons on every level... it should be no real surprise when we see it in our bodies as well.

We are encouraged to get more, more more, or bigger, better, faster... whether or not it destroys us and our environment along the way. And the people who have created this system get away with it unfettered because they keep us distracted with non-issues like a Kardashian wedding, the Jersey Shore or some manufactured "War on Christmas"... all of which, on some level, result in profit along the line for SOMEbody.

Hint: It's still not you.

The only "war on Christmas" is the one that keeps you returning to the moneychangers in the temple, who are specifically and purposefully designed to distract you from seeking the true spiritual gifts of the holiday season: family togetherness, peace and goodwill to all and a relationship with God that comes before anything else, including your pocketbook.

These hold no value in a capitalist society because you can't put a price on it, though God bless their little hearts they sure do try.

If you really want Christ in your Christmas, the true gifts of the season can never be found in a store.

So stop looking.

If you really want to do something American AND Christian, find those smaller businesses who need your hard earned dollar far more than the Walton family. Instead of rushing out with the mad crowds to shop on Black Friday, participate instead in Small Business Saturday. Find those stores that are good stewards of the planet AND humanity, who use fair trade practices and don't destroy our world and society in the process to benefit their own personal bottom line. Sure you may pay a little more but you'll have a few gifts of true value rather than a stack of crap that is designed to break, wear out or become obsolete in a few months anyway.

You really do get what you pay for.

If you don't have a whole lot of money to spend, consider this a prime opportunity to learn how to get creative with your gifts this season. Ditch the bargain superstores and stop limiting yourself with things you can put in a box or wrap with a bow. You don't have to spend a lot of money for each person on your gift list. That you remember them should be gift enough. Bake cookies for your neighbor, share your time with long lost family you only see a few times a year. Make gifts with your kids to share the most important resource you have available to you - your TIME.

You may think you will make your kid's Chri$tma$ morning with that shiny new gadget or game, but it will be easily forgotten by next holiday season when the new gadget is even shinier and the newest game is even cooler. That's the essence of our disposable consumer mindset... what you have is never as good as what you can get next.

We are MEANT to forget it when the next thing comes along.

I guarantee you that in twenty years your kid won't remember the stockpile of stuff under the tree as much as he will remember the time you spent together. Think back to your own childhood and try to remember every single gift you ever got. Odds are there were really only a few that even stand out.

But if you really have to spend money at the mall, consider adopting a family or child who is less fortunate, whose breadwinners work long hours in big retail chains making big profits for their fat cat bosses but struggle each day to put food on their table.

These kids don't need a $500 iPad... sometimes all they need is a coat to keep them warm this season. Think of how much you teach your family about Jesus when you do what he commanded and look after the "least" of his people. (Matthew 25. Seriously. Commit it to memory.)

And while you're at it, if you just absolutely, positively need to buy a new phone or computer consider donating the old ones so that someone else can get some use out of it, like, say... a United States soldier or abused women.

There is a war on Christmas, folks. But it isn't the one you've been fooled to believe it is. It's one that has gone on for decades with your consent, one that you've bankrolled. So stop getting your knickers in a twist about courteous words said in passing to a stranger this holiday season. What we call it is way less important than what we DO with it. If you really want to put the "Christ back in Christmas" think about what that REALLY means. Stop worshipping at the altar of those thieves in the temple and turn your true focus to the homeless Jew who wandered the wilderness preaching charity, compassion and the true gift of peace on earth.

I guarantee you he won't be at Target at midnight.

Then neither should you be.