Published November 28, 2004 in the Hibbing Daily Tribune
We’ve been reading (or, for some, allowing cable news to tell us) about how the economy is up, down and up again. What’s the truth? You decide.
Now is the time when everyday citizens, distracted by a year of working multiple jobs, need to stop being so selfish and start purchasing numerous expensive items that no one really wants. Our economy is at stake, America. Which side are you on?
With the conclusion of Thanksgiving and the commencement of Christmas, Inc., we are now fully engulfed in what the media dub the “Holiday Season.” They call it that so that we won’t focus exclusively on Christmas, thus including holidays from other religions. These holidays will be listed by name as soon as it is profitable for Wal-Mart.
Pardon my curmudgeon-like attitude. I really do enjoy the holidays. I put up lights and gather with friends and family. That part is great. But every year the “holidays” become a little less like the holiday spirit I remember and a little more like the crude reconstruction of holiday spirit seen in Gap commercials for stupid fuzzy jackets.
This year, the clothing store “The Gap” tells us that fuzzy things are in. Fuzzy jackets. Fuzzy scarves. Apparently, to make sure your gifts are “hip” this year you must ask yourself, “What would my loved one wear if he or she were a teddy bear?”
As is often the case, I find myself out of step with trends. I don’t want these fuzzy items, nor would I give them to a relative, real or stuffed.
The Gap phenomenon is part of a larger annoyance on my part. I acknowledge that December is a very big month for retailers. I am bothered, though, that news reports the day after Thanksgiving generally imply that the entire economy can be summed up by how much people spend on tiny pool sets and assorted nuts.
If our culture can be summed up by 25 people fighting for five cheap DVD players made in a country we may or may not have secretly invaded during the Vietnam War, I need a new culture.
For the past few years I’ve also decried the rapid expansion of large, inflatable lawn decorations. It appears my calls for restraint have gone unheeded. This year, the giant snowmen and Santas went up earlier than usual.
Like I said before, I like holiday decorations. Anything that makes your town seem a bit more like Vegas can’t be that bad. I just think that many who prominently display the large snowmen or Santas fail to realize that decorating schemes become dominated by these strapped-down weather balloons. When everyone in town buys the same decorations from the same large box store, it all gets a little too suburban for me. If I wanted to live where all yards looked identical, I wouldn’t live in northern Minnesota.
I suppose this puts me on some sort of Bah-Humbug list of shame. If that’s how it rolls, fine. Anyone who wants to check my holiday credentials can talk to my modest-sized plastic light-up penguin from L&M. I love the holidays, just not the commercialism and the creeping sense that people are expected to outdo each other in order to be good citizens.
I’m still waiting for the day when Americans are judged not on the cost of the lame presents under the tree but on the overall happiness of the people who pretend to like them.
Aaron J. Brown is a columnist for the Hibbing Daily Tribune.