Christmas Analysis
The children are tucked in their beds, hiding their little heads under the covers as they wait for Saint Nick to arrive at their house on his sleigh. Santa will slide down the chimney and leave gifts under the big over priced Christmas tree. Milk and cookies are left as an offering to the jolly man so that he will reconsider leaving them coal. Though what they don’t know are the lies that were embedded in their heads about holiday cheer. This so called happiness that was created through the gifts and commercials formed the idea that Christmas is only about giving. Yet, hidden are the negative aspects behind the joyful songs and brightly colored wrapping paper that covers the gift of greed.
Christmas has always been seen as a joyful and cheery holiday, though nobody has bothered to see its depressing points. The magical feeling people get when Christmas comes to town isn’t for what Christmas means, it’s what it brings, gifts. From early October to December, Christmas is advertised as a wonderful time of the year. A time when people get along and give, not expecting to receive anything in return, but in reality it’s just cosmetic perfections to attract buyers in stores. The classic Christmas stories told aren’t really as happy as they appear. They’re dark and hold a deeper meaning that’s not just about giving and receiving. For example, Rudolph being out casted because he’s not Christmas perfection or the Grinch, who had a bad experience with Christmas, became a romantic hero because he wanted revenge on the arrogant Whos. Romantic heroes are used in many holiday specials on T.V. Families around the country gather around their T.Vs to enjoy watching these ruthless, isolated, and misanthropic characters treat the ones around them terribly. In the end the romantic hero has a revelation and their feelings and attitude towards everyone and Christmas in a whole changes, making them ever so popular around Christmas. Santa, who is every stores favorite icon for cash isn’t jolly for joy, but instead for the fact that he’s corrupting the minds of children everywhere. No longer is Christmas a happy meaningful holiday, but instead an easy way to get excellent business.
Stores are advertising the Christmas season earlier and earlier each year to attract more buys and gain more sales. About a week after Halloween people turn on their T.V’s and snowy wonderlands appear on their screens. No longer do many think of Christmas as a time for family, instead it’s the time of year when people go buy gifts. Expecting gifts in return they put extra thought into what they get in order to create a mental insurance policy in their mind saying they’ll get something equally as nice. It’s a very shallow way of thinking, but everyone does it. Stores create Christmas sales by raising the price then dropping it back down to its normal price they day of the sale to trick people into thinking they are getting a bargain. When Christmas shopping you must be careful with the sales, cause they’re trying everything they can to get you to buy their products and items. You can’t turn on the T.V without seeing Christmas specials and commercials on everywhere all advertising the same thing Christmas gifts and ideas. Making sure that people will chose their store to shop at.
Children expect Santa to be this great man who gives them gifts, but really he’s not bringing happiness to everyone around them what about the parents? Now, they have to deal with their children becoming spoiled brats. Around the world children hurry and to get to bed so that Santa may bring them gifts. Why do these children get gifts though? What have they done in order to receive anything? Sure, some of them probably did earn their gifts, but in the end they won’t be pleased. They’ll continue to want for nothing and beg their parents for more. Face it, we’re all human, none of us are good all year round. So, if Santa only gives the good children gifts why do the bad kids get gifts as well? Children are getting gifts, not because they earn them or because they’re good. They get gifts to be happy, a small glimpse of the good that is still in Christmas. Sadly, they’re never satisfied, some of them may only play with the gifts they got maybe once or twice then never touch them again. Santa teaches children that it’s okay to want, but what he should be teaching is you don’t always get what you want.
When most people gather around the family television to watch their favorite Christmas specials they normally don’t see or even thing of the darkness in these stories. Such as the ever famous story of the beloved red nosed reindeer Rudolph and how he saved Christmas. Rudolph was out casted due to his imperfection that was his nose. The other reindeer were ruthless and teased him because of his nose. Even Santa, who was supposed to be sympathetic and compassionate wouldn’t even allow the poor deer to join the sleigh team. Then out desperation they ask him to guide the sleigh using his imperfection to their advantage. Throughout the story Rudolph was used and pushed around, yet people watch it because it has a catchy song and everyone appears so happy. Rudolph as seen as a hero, but if it wasn’t for the foggy night he would have never been socially accepted (Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer).
Romantic characters are known to isolate themselves from the rest of the characters and be very ruthless and misanthropic in the stories. A perfect example of this is “The Grinch”. The despicable Grinch made his home all the way at the top of the mountain near Who Ville isolating himself from all the Whos. He is also very misanthropic, at one point in the movie he gets a phone book and picks out random names in it to yell out that he hates them (The Grinch). The Grinch also becomes very ruthless when he decides he’s going to steal Christmas. He takes his only friend Max the dog and uses him as a deer by putting an antler that weighs him down and forces him to pulls a massive sleigh. When it came time to steal everything from the Whos’ houses he forced himself down the chimney and went through the trouble to take every single thing from their house, just to upset them (The Grinch).
When people see Santa they think gifts, so stores love it when it’s Christmas because they get a man in a Santa costume and tons of children will come in with their parents. Meaning those parents will do some Christmas shopping while their child tells Santa what he or she wants this year. The more they can attract children the more they will sell. To them Santa is the holiday symbol for a dollar sign. Santa affects the public during the holiday. Without a good icon to help boost sales, the perfect man for that is Santa. His joy appearance is friendly and attracts customers and as long as they have fair prices their store will make great business.
In the end Christmas is seen as a happy holiday, but we must all keep in mind that there’s a negative to all things positive. Behind every happy holiday story is a dark meaning that is waiting to be pointed out and every store is only using Christmas as a gimmick for some cash. Santa isn’t as jolly as he’s made to be instead he’s a man made for the corruption of the mind. All romantic characters in some way are misanthropic, ruthless, and isolate themselves. If we are to take a look at Christmas from a different perspective we would see, it’s all cosmetic and underneath the shiny lights and pretty wrapping paper is an ugly image of greed and little acceptance.
[My opinions on Christmas, written for school. Again, I received a 145/130 on it...but I'm still unsure of it. It's a college paper. Opinions. Comments. Rate.]
