We understand and respect the necessity of a businessperson doing all they can to stay in business. We understand that when your competitors offer an enticing sale to get customers in their door, one of your best options is to offer an equally pleasing enticement to attract customers to your door.
Competition is good, both for businesses and for customers.
Still, it is distressing to see the business of Christmas expanding outward, like a seasonal oil slick, coating all it encounters with commercial veneer of good cheer.
In recent years the launch of the Christmas season has crept earlier and earlier into November. Actually, in some stores this year, the Christmas decorations actually predated Halloween.
For years now, it has been bad enough that the American obsession with commercializing Christmas has done much to wipe away the inherent spirit of the season. It is worse now that efforts to boost the economy are turning Christmas into a three month long slog, one that encourages patrons to spend money if they want to participate.
Enough.
Christmas will be here soon enough. When that day comes we will celebrate in the fashion of the season and we encourage you to do the same.
Despite the gifts, the decorations; the pressure to shop, shop, shop with the implied reward of buying happiness, Christmas is at its heart a religious holiday with a spiritual center, one that in fact does not require a person to be a Christian, or even religious to celebrate.
Peace on earth and good will toward men is not a slogan. It is a way of life.
