Just Whose Birthday is Christmas?

Each year it seems Christmas is more commercialized, merchandized, and people are greedier. It’s to the point where I’m afraid we’ve almost lost what the holiday was originally about and how it ought to be celebrated. Presently, this is weighing more heavily upon my mind than in previous years because of some incidents that I’ve been unfortunate to observe.

The first disgusting incident, and it ought to disgust everybody, is this year, at least where I live, retailers put out their Christmas paraphernalia before Halloween. I don’t know, call me old fashion, but it seems to me there should be a law against decorations that are chronologically out of sync.I guess the theory behind this atrocity is that since Christmas is a big spending holiday the longer you can stretch the season the more money you’ll make. It’s nothing but pure greed and that’s just wrong!

Another example of greed and the over merchandising of Christmas was what one of the nation’s largest retailers did concerning “Black Friday.” As a lot of people know, this is traditionally the Friday after Thanksgiving when more people go Christmas shopping than on any other day of the year. It’s become the traditional kick off of the Christmas season. For some retailers this day puts their sales for the whole year in the black, meaning they made a profit. If they have a bad Black Friday their sales for the year will be in the red, signifying they lost money that year.Needless to say, this one day of the year can make or break some businesses.

So, retailers go all out with special sales,financing, all kinds of gimmicks to get the consumer to purchase their products.Well, the retail chain of which I speak decided to get the jump on their competitors and announced they were going to have their Black Friday a week before the traditional one, hoping to out sell their retail rivals. Again, it totally smacks of pure greed!

And speaking of Black Friday, it was during this year’s that I witnessed one of the most despicable things of all.It was announced in the media that a small number of the new generation of X-Box was going to be for sale on Black Friday only at certain retailers across the country. People literally camped out in the parking lots of these retailers for days, even weeks, hoping they’d be one of the select few to get their hands on an X-Box for their kids or just for themselves.

Well, after camping out for a week or more on sidewalks and parking lots people got a little cranky, and you can imagine the chaos that ensued when others tried to cut in line. There were several incidents that required the police to get the crowds under control. Arrests were made, people were hauled off to jail, and there was at least one occurrence of people being trampled by the hoards pushing to get into the stores when their doors opened.

After Black Friday, stories began circulating that because of the one X-Box purchase per customer limit, people paid others to wait in line with them to buy this product for them, enabling the payer to get his hands on more than one. If successful, the payer put his extra X-Boxes on ebay and the bidding wars began. One rumor had an X-Box selling for over $10,000.00.

I relate these incidents to you to preface the lyrics of a song, written by Harold Reid of the Statler Brothers, which sums up quite nicely all of this ridiculous greed and over merchandising. It also helps me to keep Christmas in perspective. I hope it will do the same for you.

Whose Birthday Is Christmas?

By Harold Reid

One December Sunday morning after church

I was walking to my car and I heard a little boy say

Oh daddy just whose birthday is Christmas?

The Bible says that Jesus was born

Oh daddy please explain,

I had to ask because

You hear so much about Santa Clause

Silver bells and cedar smells don’t tell the story

Of the virgin and the manger where He lay

Festive drinks and glasses clinks won’t make Jesus

Proud to say that this is His birthday

Oh daddy just whose birthday is Christmas?

The Bible says that Jesus was born

Oh daddy please explain

I had to ask because

You hear so much about Santa Clause

In Sunday school we read the Christmas story

Saint Nick will come next week so we are told

It’s hard to understand in a big people’s land

Especially if you’re six years old

Oh daddy just whose birthday is Christmas?

The Bible says that Jesus was born

Oh daddy please explain,

I had to ask because

You hear so much about Santa Clause

It’s hard to understand in a big people’s land

Especially if you’re six years old