Today, the commercialization of Christmas has started. Not surprisingly, every year Christmas gear shows up on the shelves a week earlier than the day before. Before you know it, every day will be Christmas. I went to the grocery store the other day, and I was greeted with Christmas trees. Last year, I didn't see Christmas trees showing up until a week or two before Thanksgiving. This year Christmas trees beat out Halloween pumpkins. This abnormality is quite perplexing to my children.
Businesses are engaged in the commercialization of Christmas to make money. Every year they want to make more and push the envelope on yet another holiday season. When I was a child, we didn't even think about celebrating Christmas until the day after Thanksgiving. The month of November was a time to reflect on the year and get ready for winter. Something about the commercialization of Christmas is not appealing to me. Sure, I love the aroma of fresh cut Christmas trees and Christmas music on the radio. Who doesn't? But all of the Christmas crap and decor is a bit too much, especially before Thanksgiving.
Why the commercialization of Christmas?
I think the biggest reason for the push of the commercialization of Christmas is to remove Jesus. Pretty sad, isn't it? Since Jesus is the reason for the season, why on earth would we push him out of the celebration? The secular take over of Christmas is producing the commercialization of Christmas. The sad part is, Christians are buying into it. Money has become a driving force for why we celebrate Christmas. Instead of celebrating the birth of Christ, we celebrate the biggest deal that we got at the shopping mall.
The narrative of Christmas will never change. Christmas will always be the celebration of Jesus' birth. The secular's know this, and that is why they are attacking the holiday this way. Plus to top it off, they make a whole lot of money in the process. I don't want to come across as the Grinch, but seriously why would you place so much emphasis on decor and not the son of God?
It is time for Christians to throw The Night Before Christmas story aside. Time to pull out the Bible and read why we remember this time of year as the birth of Christ.
Matthew 1:23-25 NASB 23 “Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which translated means, “God with us.” 24 And Joseph [i]awoke from his sleep and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took Mary as his wife, 25 but kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a Son; and he called His name Jesus.