The spirit of Christmas or the spirit of the wishlist?

Geneseo students walking down University Drive before leaving for winter break.

            For those who celebrate Christmas, what do you look forward to when Christmas is near? What do you really look forward to? These questions are not aimed to shame anyone for materialistic feelings, but just to take a dive into the commercialization of Christmas. There are a lot of financial expectations when it comes to Christmas, and when your finances don't meet those expectations, Christmas can become more stressful than cheerful.

            We’re often taught about the “true meaning of Christmas” through movies and books such as A Christmas Carol and Christmas with the Kranks, which embrace the notion that Christmas is about being selfless and spending time with those you love. It’s worth questioning, however: does this accurately reflect the reality of Christmas? 

            Over time, Christmas has become more and more commercialized. The pressure to buy lights, cookies, cards, gifts, and so on, is very overwhelming for many of us. The National Retail Federation (NRF) expects Americans to spend 8.5%-10.5% more this 2021 holiday season, bringing overall holiday spending between $843.4-859 billion. This is a $300 billion spike compared to the average monthly retail spending, which is about $550 billion according to the US Retail Sales Chart from YCharts. 

            This gives some insight on just how much more Americans are spending during the holiday. Why do we spend so much more money during this time? We believe that the media pressure plays a large role in holiday spending.

            The media possesses us to believe that in order to have the perfect Christmas, we need to have all these things: the perfect tree, the most beautiful lights, and the best presents. As humans, we feel the need to fit in, so when the media is filled with things such as lights and gifts, and “holiday cheer,” we feel the need to have those as well. Companies overwhelm us with “noise, color, and movement” as a “technique to get you to think less completely and respond to emotional cues, such as social norms, FOMO, and rituals,” according to TheConversation.com. They convince us to believe that we need these materialistic items to have the perfect Christmas. 

            Just like everyone else, we set these unrealistic expectations for ourselves in hopes to create this persona that we have everything together, and that our life is great, grand and wonderful. Unfortunately, our ability to create this persona doesn’t correlate with actual happiness. While for many people dopamine is released upon buying things, the buyer’s remorse hits hard after the holiday. This corresponds to an increase of mental health issues directly after the holiday. 

            While for many of us, holiday activities seem to immediately increase our well-being, they’re more of a temporary quick fix. When the holiday season is over, mental health issues spike when something called the “post-holiday blues” sets in. This is basically a come down from the adrenaline felt during the holiday, and these post-holiday blues have some very serious outcomes. 

            According to the American Psychiatric Association the most difficult months for people with Seasonal Affective Disorder, a type of depression, tends to be in January and February. Then for general mental health, according to The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), 24% of people living with a mental illness found that the holidays made their symptoms “a lot worse,” and 40% of people living with a mental illness found that the holidays made their symptoms “somewhat worse.” Furthermore, 68% felt financially stressed, 63% experienced too much pressure, and 57% felt there were unreal expectations. 

            While materialization and unattainable expectations may not be the only factors into a mental health issue spike after the holidays, they certainly play a huge role that is important to recognize, and then question ourselves on.

            With that said, we still love Christmas, and are guilty of indulging in materialistic pleasures, but we hope this poses you, and ourselves, to reflect and realize the unnecessary pressures we’re putting ourselves under, and to reflect on being conscious that this time of year is not joyful for everyone, so be considerate of others (don't be that guy who Snapchats their pile of gifts under the tree). It’s okay to be appreciative, but don't fall into the trap of glamorizing the materialistic aspects of Christmas. 

            Happy holidays.