Jesus or Santa Clause? Which Do You Celebrate?

Christmas, is it a religious holiday or an opportunity for retailers to capitalize on society's overwhelming passion of feeling the need to shop?

The time has come to accept the fact that Christmas is no longer only celebrated as a religious holiday, but it is also celebrated and viewed as a business opportunity.

Go to any city in the United States and ask any kid what does Christmas mean. I would be willing to bet a year's salary that between 90-95% of them will respond with an answer that revolves around receiving and/or exchanging gifts.

Today, as a forty-two year old man, I can remember when there once was a time when the true meaning of Christmas was celebrated. Maybe, it was that people back then put forth more of an effort to pretend as though they were celebrating the true meaning of Christmas.

I can recall attending church every Sunday leading up to Christmas. Receiving my Christmas speech from my Sunday school teacher and going home practicing it over and over so that I would not make a mistake during the Christmas program.

I remember seeing nativity scenes throughout the city in recognition of Jesus. Some where along the way, the commercialization of Christmas began to take over.

Nativity scenes were replaced with sales signs reading 30-40% off. Christmas speeches were replaced with Christmas lists. It seems that the image of Jesus has been kidnapped and held hostage and replaced with Santa Clause.

What does an imaginary fat man in a bright red suit riding around in a sleigh being pulled around by magically flying reindeer have to do with the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ?

It started decades ago when kids became more and more concerned about being out of school for two weeks for the Christmas holidays than celebrating Christ.

Waking up Christmas morning, and opening gifts to see if they had received the items that were on their list became their main purpose for waking up that morning. Before long, those kids became adults, and it began a vicious cycle of selfishness and American greed.

Clearly, their intentions were to try and buy the biggest and best of everything. The more expensive it was the better.

Retailers realizing this began catering to the consumers' desire to spend more and more money. They began capitalizing on the eagerness of parents to buy their children all of the latest high tech toys such as X-boxes, play stations, MP3s and more.

Since the kids were getting their toys, parents did not want to be left out either. Dads wanted their new 50 inch HDTV, and moms wanted their new necklace or coach purse.

As I reflect back over the topics that we have blogged about during this class, I notice that most of them all seem to have one element in common, GREED!

It is no wonder that greed is considered one of the seven deadly sins. Some may have viewed our topics as American greed while others may have viewed it as just greed by way of human nature.

So, in answering the question that was asked in the documentary "What Would Jesus Buy?", if He was human, and especially if He was an American, He would probably jump into His big SUV and drive down to the nearest mall and max out His credit card. He would first upgrade his wardrobe and then begin buying all of the latest high tech electronics.

But, I would like to think that my Jesus would like to somehow buy enough food to feed the hungry, purchase homes for the homeless, and find world peace between all nations or at least put it on lay-a-way.