It’s beginning to look a lot like . . .
August 11th, 2007 by Wulf
. . . Solstice
Okay, so it looks like Summer Solstice, but a friend of mine brought up a very good point.
As a little background information, my family doesn’t celebrate Christmas. The reason is fairly simple: we are not Christian. But since Christmas was simply invented by Christians in an effort to retain more pagan converts through syncretism,we can celebrate Yule instead. Since Christmas was pretty much modeled after Yule, we get to do all the same fun traditions without all the “Jesus Died for You” stuff, which tends to bring everybody down anyways. It pretty much equates to all the fun with less than half the guilt 
Anywho, on to the subject of this post: the commercialization of Christmas/Yule. No matter how you look at it, Yule and Christmas were both essentially family-centered holidays. You took comfort during the cold months by spending time with family, and showed your appreciation by making gifts and decorations for those you loved. Now, however, Christmas has been hijacked by the crass commercialism, and bears little resemblance to what it used to mean. That’s where the the movement of the “buy nothng christmas” came from. The reason I write about this now, is because to make your gifts takes time and thought. We should probably start early.
I’m sure I’ll get guff from my family about how I’m anti-capitalism, or some such. Or how our economy depends on a commercialized Christmas, but I don’t care. I guess it’s about priorities . . .
Bah. Capitalism isn’t about spending and it doesn’t have anything to do with Christmas. Capitalism is about leaving the means of production in the hands of private citizens. As such, you, as a private citizen, should do all you can to maximize things you find valuable with the capital you control. If that means bucking the commercialized Christmas trends, then by all means do so. Let the markets fend for themselves–that’s what they’re *for*.
Frankly, I’d go with a buy nothing Christmas, too, if I weren’t so lazy.
I only give you guff for being anti-capitalism when you advocate for the creation of collectivist rights and government intervention to enforce collectivist agendas.
It is hard to make gifts for the extended family. You will spend a lot of time making something, then they give you something they bought–which may look flashy or expensive–and you struggle with whether your “exchange” is even. Which shouldn’t even be a question in your mind.
Giving doesn’t feel like giving anymore, it feels like exchanging. At lease that is my struggle.
You think your family is going to give you guff about taking the commercialism out of Christmas?! Do you even KNOW us? For our family, Christmas is trying to be about the birth of Christ. We don’t commercialise it because we want to support the economy…we do it because everybody else does! I don’t want my kids to be the only ones that don’t get anything for Christmas, heaven forbid.
No one would be happier than me to see you making all your gifts for Christmas! I want to see you make that 3 in 1 game table for Connor. Make sure you take pictures and post it on your website.