Analysis: The Sacralization Of Christmas

“X”-ing out X-mas: How Business is Cutting off Christmas Hey Virginia, there is more than just a Santa Claus. Nowadays, Americans have either forgotten or ignored Christmas traditions put in place over 1500 years ago. They would rather indulge in the gifts and shopping to please their family than sit back and enjoy the holiday. This new mindset has led Christmas, Hanukkah, and other seasonal festivals to lose their religious intent through the past centuries by the hands of both people and markets. The original purpose of Christmas, celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ, has been trampled and overshadowed by a marketeer’s interpretation of how to represent the holiday. Santa and snowmen have become the faces of Christmas, instead of the Son
Bartunek and Do’s article "The sacralization of Christmas commerce." explains that northeastern United States settlers introduced new religions like Calvinism Protestantism to the country. Calvinism shares many traits with Christianity, but accepts the commercial world as “God’s will”. In fact, capitalism was intended to coexist alongside religion, without any conflict. (Bartunek) Calvinism being introduced to the young nation effectively corrupted Christmas. Of course, Calvinism was not the only religion integrated into the United States; major influences to Christmas came from Puritans, Anglicans, and the early American Methodists as
At the same time that Santa permeated magazines and overshadowed Christmas, other famous figures appeared to promote the holiday. In January 1939, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer was created by Robert May of Chicago. At this time, the United States still struggled to climb out of the Great Depression, and businesses scrambled to turn a profit in a floppy economy. May’s company, Montgomery Ward, commissioned him to write a quick Christmas-themed book that could cheaply and effectively win the hearts of children. With this thought in mind, May created a small book, only 89 couplets, that included borrowed lines from Clement Clarke Moore’s “A Visit from St. Nicholas” and theme’s from Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale “The Ugly Duckling”. Rudolph’s 32 page tale became a gimmick for children; a promotional gift awarded to children who visited any of the department’s 620 locations. The store gimmick worked; the department store handed out 2.4 million books in 1939 and 3.6 million in 1946. (Klein) With six million books indirectly promoting the department store, Christmas became a bigger brand in the market, at least for Montgomery Ward. The 32 page book has since been stripped and modified into a short film. Added characters in the film, like the Abominable Snowman and Hermy the Elf have altered the content of the children’s story and have added more labels for commercial markets in future years. These