The Grinch who Sells Christmas

I received the cutest Holiday e-card, reminding me there isn't a child alive (not even a puppy) who can stay awake long enough to greet Santa.



Unfortunately, it reminded me of this year's Best Buy commercials dissing Santa--who it seems is only good enough to leave presents for dogs!?



Today, we can understand Scrooge's "Bah! Humbug!" due to the dread everyone feels by the prospect of being mauled at the mall. We forget Scrooge's visitations by the ghosts of Christmas, ghosts who defrosted his cold heart with visions of those less fortunate.

Christmas is a time of innocent awe - children waking their parents at the crack of dawn to see what presents Santa left. When giving is better than receiving and thoughtful gifts are better than $1000 flat screen TVs. Christmas is about families getting together to make ornaments and cookies or working at the local food bank and being thankful. It is not supposed to be a stress-ridden orgy of shopping where children are disappointed by every present and parents need a vacation, or more likely, have to work overtime to pay off all the credit card debt they racked up.

And now we have devolved to dissing Santa, the very essence of childhood wonder, by making Christmas a full contact sport.

Game on, Santa? No. Game over, Best Buy.

Comments

  1. dpeixotoFebruary 1, 2012 at 2:34 PM

    I totally agree with the captions above. Christmas is supposed to be about family time and being together for the holidays. It should not be a competition where the person with the most expensive present or the most presents wins. I have worked at Target for a little more than two years and out of those two years I have only worked Black Friday twice. The first year, I just assisted guests by answering their questions and showing them where certain items were located. This past Black Friday I worked cashier. I could not believe how much money people spent on this specific day. As I was cashiering, numerous amounts of people came to my lane and purchased televisions. But each person did not just have one television. Every person that came to my lane had at least two flat screen televisions. I was shocked to ring up this couple that had seven televisions. This was all because the televisions were like $100 off. I was just so amazed because where are these people going to put these flat screens TVs at? I feel like there will be one in every bedroom, maybe one in the kitchen, and probably one in the bathroom. It was so ridiculous to see this. Even if these people weren’t buying these televisions for themselves, no one needs a huge TV for Christmas. I remember a time when this holiday meant being together with the family and enjoying each other’s presence, not presents. People need to realize that this is the time to be thankful for having family and loved ones together in one place. This is not the season to be jolly for a brand new 50 inch HDTV.

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