Halpern, Sue, and Bill McKibben. "Hundred dollar holidays." Cross Currents 42.3 (1992): 364. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 7 Dec. 2010.
Halpern and McKibben’s article explores the over-commercialization of the December holidays in American culture. One major issue they focus on is that of gift-giving for Christmas. Rampant consumerism throughout our culture has led many families, Christian or not, to delve far too deeply into the commercial side of Christmas and often to completely forget about or ignore the religious traditions. Not only does this cause financial problems for the families that spend so much money on gifts, but this also shows Americans’ flawed values. According to the article, this is brought upon us from a young age when we request a few toys for Christmas and end up receiving multiple times that number of gifts from our parents—an all-too-common happening in many American households. Such consumerism and commercialization of the holidays is distinct evidence of their secularization. Consumerism during the holidays does not elicit as much happiness as one would think, as the financial burdens cast onto a large percentage of Americans as well as the realization that many American traditions are superficial are actually quite saddening. The authors have many recommendations for families on how to avoid giving in to these phenomena. Among them are alternative gift suggestions, such as gifts of service, experience gifts like hiking or visiting a museum, and spiritual activities like church attendance. These ideas are still in line with the sense of giving during the holiday season, yet do not take part in the mass commercialization and spending.
Melissa
"CHRISTMAS." Tikkun 24.6 (2009): 36-37. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 7 Dec. 2010.
This article takes a look at Christmas and Advent from a historical standpoint. According to the article, Christians do not celebrate Christmas on December twenty-fifth because that is the anniversary of the birth of Jesus, but because it was when the ancient Romans “celebrated the winter solstice.” So, as religious as the holiday seems, it may actually be more politically or culturally characterized, contrary to what many people believe. In fact, Christianity is referred to as being “a civil religion first to the Roman Empire, and then to Western civilization.” Clearly, this article takes the stance that Christmas historically is not so religiously defined. Furthermore, it has been tremendously commercialized by the modern American culture, in which people now spent $400 billion for Christmas gifts alone at the beginning of the century. Christmas is described as being “America’s favorite birthday party.” While this article recognizes these secular aspects of the holiday, though, it also argues that people must find their way back to the true religious meaning and to the Lord. By treating Christmas so secularly, Christians are betraying God and forgetting about their traditions. Christians are disrespectful of their faith when they do not celebrate Christmas and Advent religiously, as it was meant to be. No longer do we have to wait for the word of an empire as the ancient Romans did to be able to celebrate the holidays—we modern Americans have to take responsibility for ourselves, and those who are Christians should pay due respect to their faith.
Melissa
Barnett, James H. “The Easter Festival – A Study in Cultural Change.” American Sociological Review Vol. 14, No. 1 (1949) pg 62-70. JSTOR. Web. 4 Dec 2010.
Halpern and McKibben’s article explores the over-commercialization of the December holidays in American culture. One major issue they focus on is that of gift-giving for Christmas. Rampant consumerism throughout our culture has led many families, Christian or not, to delve far too deeply into the commercial side of Christmas and often to completely forget about or ignore the religious traditions. Not only does this cause financial problems for the families that spend so much money on gifts, but this also shows Americans’ flawed values. According to the article, this is brought upon us from a young age when we request a few toys for Christmas and end up receiving multiple times that number of gifts from our parents—an all-too-common happening in many American households. Such consumerism and commercialization of the holidays is distinct evidence of their secularization. Consumerism during the holidays does not elicit as much happiness as one would think, as the financial burdens cast onto a large percentage of Americans as well as the realization that many American traditions are superficial are actually quite saddening. The authors have many recommendations for families on how to avoid giving in to these phenomena. Among them are alternative gift suggestions, such as gifts of service, experience gifts like hiking or visiting a museum, and spiritual activities like church attendance. These ideas are still in line with the sense of giving during the holiday season, yet do not take part in the mass commercialization and spending.
Melissa
"CHRISTMAS." Tikkun 24.6 (2009): 36-37. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 7 Dec. 2010.
This article takes a look at Christmas and Advent from a historical standpoint. According to the article, Christians do not celebrate Christmas on December twenty-fifth because that is the anniversary of the birth of Jesus, but because it was when the ancient Romans “celebrated the winter solstice.” So, as religious as the holiday seems, it may actually be more politically or culturally characterized, contrary to what many people believe. In fact, Christianity is referred to as being “a civil religion first to the Roman Empire, and then to Western civilization.” Clearly, this article takes the stance that Christmas historically is not so religiously defined. Furthermore, it has been tremendously commercialized by the modern American culture, in which people now spent $400 billion for Christmas gifts alone at the beginning of the century. Christmas is described as being “America’s favorite birthday party.” While this article recognizes these secular aspects of the holiday, though, it also argues that people must find their way back to the true religious meaning and to the Lord. By treating Christmas so secularly, Christians are betraying God and forgetting about their traditions. Christians are disrespectful of their faith when they do not celebrate Christmas and Advent religiously, as it was meant to be. No longer do we have to wait for the word of an empire as the ancient Romans did to be able to celebrate the holidays—we modern Americans have to take responsibility for ourselves, and those who are Christians should pay due respect to their faith.
Melissa
Barnett, James H. “The Easter Festival – A Study in Cultural Change.” American Sociological Review Vol. 14, No. 1 (1949) pg 62-70. JSTOR. Web. 4 Dec 2010.
“The Easter Festival: A Study in Cultural Change” is an article written by James H. Barnett in 1946, while he was a professor at the University of Connecticut. It is contained in the American Sociological Review and is a piece that discusses the holiday of Easter and how, within the time period of 1870 to Barnett’s present day of 1946, it had been shaped by American culture. The work discusses primarily the Christian celebration of Easter and its role as both a religious holy day and a “folk” holiday. Barnett goes into detail on how the holiday is characterized and how it functions in society. He draws parallels between the period in which Easter is celebrated and other holidays, being that many American holidays are celebrated over the course of several days. He talks about the different behaviors and social activities that are common during times in which holidays, such as Easter, take place. This special conduct which many people fall into during holidays differs from their ordinary behavior. It is this specific change that often allows the commercialized aspects of the holidays to take over, and for individuals to lose their grasp on the true meaning of the holiday. Even over the time span of 70 years, Barnett already noticed changes in the American view of major Christian holidays, such as Easter and Christmas. This is an interesting piece being that it was written over 60 years ago, and that one can now look back and see how much our culture has continued to change in their celebration of holidays.
Katherine
Schmidt, Leigh Eric. “The Commercialization of the Calendar: American Holidays and the Culture of Consumption, 1870-1930. ” The Journal of American History Vol. 7, No.3 (1991) pg 887-916. JSTOR. Web. 4 Dec 2010.
“The Commercialization of the Calendar: American Holidays and the Culture of Consumption, 1870-1930) an article by Drew University professor Leigh Eric Schmidt, talks about the significant time period of 1870-1930 when many commercial changes in religious celebrations took place. In this piece, Schmidt discusses not only how American Holidays have become commercialized, but also how our culture of consumerism has led us to neglect the religious aspects of many holidays. Commercialism, as Schmidt recollects, was not always a part of the holidays which we celebrate yearly. It was around the turn of the century that people began to embrace the merchandising potential that holidays had, and began to produce products associated with these celebrations. In the article, Schmidt talks about how America changed over that 50 years and what results our society, as it became more focused on media and merchandise, had upon the originally religious holidays. The American culture and our capitalistic mentality have led us to want to accumulate merchandise and wealth as not only part of our everyday lives, but as part of our holidays. During the time period which Schmidt talks about, secular characters such as Santa Claus and the Easter bunny were popularized and began to overshadow the actual biblical characters whom the holiday was centered around, namely Jesus Christ. A detailed source on the topic, Schmidt provides a thorough history of holidays in America and how commercialism has transformed them into holidays centered around secular characters and purchasing merchandise.
Katherine
Katherine
Schmidt, Leigh Eric. “The Commercialization of the Calendar: American Holidays and the Culture of Consumption, 1870-1930. ” The Journal of American History Vol. 7, No.3 (1991) pg 887-916. JSTOR. Web. 4 Dec 2010.
“The Commercialization of the Calendar: American Holidays and the Culture of Consumption, 1870-1930) an article by Drew University professor Leigh Eric Schmidt, talks about the significant time period of 1870-1930 when many commercial changes in religious celebrations took place. In this piece, Schmidt discusses not only how American Holidays have become commercialized, but also how our culture of consumerism has led us to neglect the religious aspects of many holidays. Commercialism, as Schmidt recollects, was not always a part of the holidays which we celebrate yearly. It was around the turn of the century that people began to embrace the merchandising potential that holidays had, and began to produce products associated with these celebrations. In the article, Schmidt talks about how America changed over that 50 years and what results our society, as it became more focused on media and merchandise, had upon the originally religious holidays. The American culture and our capitalistic mentality have led us to want to accumulate merchandise and wealth as not only part of our everyday lives, but as part of our holidays. During the time period which Schmidt talks about, secular characters such as Santa Claus and the Easter bunny were popularized and began to overshadow the actual biblical characters whom the holiday was centered around, namely Jesus Christ. A detailed source on the topic, Schmidt provides a thorough history of holidays in America and how commercialism has transformed them into holidays centered around secular characters and purchasing merchandise.
Katherine
Elizabeth C. Hirschman, Priscilla A. LaBarbera (1989), "THE MEANING OF CHRISTMAS", in Special Volumes - icr, , : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 136-147.
Despite being a very commercial holiday, Christmas has received almost no attention in the consumer behavior literature or in the social sciences generally. This article describes Christmas changes in recent history. Barnett (1954) interpreted a diversified collection of documentary evidence and traced changes in the meaning of American Christmas festivities from early Colonial days until the middle of the 20th century. Despite the formal religious aspects of the holiday, such as Jesus, “Christmas is also nourished by the ties of family life, by affection for children, by a willingness to aid the needy, and even by the profit seeking activities of modern business.” Ms. Hirschman has found six newer and more recent studies since Barnett’s study over 50 years ago. The first new study “examined the asymmetries of Christmas gift giving between different ‘classes’ of consumers, for instance, the marked tendency of parents to give greater quantities of gifts to their children, than vice versa.” She also comments on the “rich set of secular and sacred symbols” that Christmas contains, such as Santa Clause, Christmas trees, wreathes, mistletoe, and poinsettias. Snow, reindeer, hearths, chimneys, and stockings are also common ones. She goes on for a paragraph about all the different things associated with Christmas, ending with the religious symbols of the manger, the star of Bethlehem, the shepherds and their flocks, and the three kings. Another one of her six sources blames Santa for the commercialization of the holiday as Santa is a captivating figure for children, who look up to him as a hero. This is a wonderful source for pages of explanation about Christmas changes over the years!
Charlotte
Schobert, Jr., F. Matthew. "Beyond Candy Cane Lane." The Center for Christian Ethics at Baylor University (2003). Web. 5 Dec. 2010.
Schobert’s subtitle for his article is: “Our Christmas cheer turns sour as mass marketing, frenzied shopping, shortened tempers, burgeoning debt, and an exhausting calendar of activities overwhelm us. Buying fair-trade gifts and celebrating Christmas within the context of the Christian year are two humble practices for disentangling the holy day from consumerism.” I feel as if this subtitle summarizes the article perfectly. His first line comments on how Christmas begins in November with caroling, cantatas, and holiday tunes “float[ing] from schools and churches, echo[ing] on street corners and in shopping malls, and beam[ing] from every radio station.” The specials that are on TV relate to Charlie Brown, Frosty, and Rudolph. However, Christmas cheer can turn sour very quickly with frenzied shopping and short tempers. He discusses how a whole neighborhood near his childhood home turns into Candy Cane Lane where all the houses are decorated in excessive Christmas attire. This is also the time of year where many devout Christians angrily write letters to newspapers and magazines requesting that Christ be put back into Christmas because “Jesus is the Reason for the Season.” Gifts were not always a part of Christmas; in early America the holiday was an excuse for drinking, food, and promiscuity. Santa was created in 1823 and within a few years was a tool used to sell goods and presents. He was a marketing tool. He says that there is nothing wrong with gift giving, but “storming the malls to purchase the new toy craze our children demand as the result of a television advertising blitz constitutes markedly different cultural content than does gift exchange.” There isn’t anything wrong with a secularized Christmas, just don’t completely lose sight of the “Reason for the Season.”
Charlotte
