Thanksgiving is the only remaining levee to hold back the torrent of Christmas excess. Without Thanksgiving, the day after Halloween would most likely be the biggest shopping day of the year.
In recent years, Thanksgiving has weakened, allowing Christmas to creep its way into November and even late October. When trick or treaters start caroling, we’ll know we have a real problem on our hands.
Still, most sane people will at least wait until the last piece of pumpkin pie is served before they plan their Christmas shopping attack.
The day after Thanksgiving is one of the most depressing days of the year. Instead of planning a day around friends and family, many of us rise early and head for the malls in search of the best deals of the season.
The irony is absurd.
We are given time off from work and school to be with our family. Instead of being with our family, we waste the day searching for gifts to give to our family. We spend so much money buying these gifts that we are forced to work longer hours away from our family to make up the difference. All of this is done so that we can gather around the Christmas tree with our family and give each other gifts to express how much we all enjoy being with each other. This is cuckoo capitalism in full swing.
It seems counterintuitive that we inaugurate “the hap happiest season of all” by fighting through mobs of angry bargain warriors just so we can obtain the last remaining Itch Me Elmo doll. It’s troubling that our peace of mind can actually hinge on whether or not we acquire the latest, greatest, all to frequently limited in number video game console. Is a newly discounted flat screen hi-definition television our best hope for a better tomorrow?
We live in a consumer culture where irrational consumption has reached epidemic proportions. The pursuit of illogical extravagance has become normative behavior. We have lots of stuff, but little satisfaction. Even so, our Christmas lists just get longer and more expensive.
Consider this a preemptive strike. Before you fire up the charge card, take a few moments to contemplate what is temporary and what is eternal. Close your eyes and ponder your life. What around you will rust, corrode, and fade away? Are you spending your best energy, money, and resources on temporal things? What in your life has eternal value? What is the true value of your family? Will another toy or gizmo add any real value to what’s most important in your life?
We all have different opinions about such matters. However, if we don’t take time to truly pause, consider, and make room for our values, someone else will try and fill in the void. Christmas is a wonderful time. I see it as a celebration of God’s rescue plan. When we were bound in our sins, God sent his son to save us. Spending ourselves into endless debt seems like an odd way to celebrate our Savior’s birth.
With this in mind, I want to challenge you to do at least two things the day after Thanksgiving. First, set aside some money to give to those less fortunate. Don’t wait until the end of the season to be generous. Money given to the truly needy is never wasted!
Second, find a way to spend some quality time with the people God has entrusted to your care. This may require the dusting off of board games and a willingness to put off your shopping for at least one more day. Let someone else get the limited game console while you get your life back.
Happy Thanksgiving and a preemptive Merry Christmas. I’ll wait a few weeks to talk about Easter.
Doug hosts Live from Seattle with Doug Bursch on 820 AM KGNW.
Douglas Bursch is the author of Posting Peace: Why Social Media Divides Us and What We Can Do About It. He also hosts The Fairly Spiritual Show podcast.