Christmas Satire Essay, Research Paper
Today’s Christmas is no longer a celebration of
Christ and happiness, but is a celebration of a now
fake, commercialized, overweight Santa Claus. The idea
of eating yet another turkey dinner while watching a
forgettable Disney movie on television brings tears
of pain, not joy, to one’s eyes. The main virtues
of the holidays have gone from an idealistic white
wonderland, to a migraine-causing festival of greed.
The Christmas of the past was once a beautiful
celebration of the birth of Christ. Families would
come together to enjoy the holidays together in a
peaceful, loving environment. Children ran around in
a pine scented home, clamoring over the presents that
Santa had brought the night before. Even if the family
was struggling, children would appreciate the hard
work and thought put into each gift. At night mothers,
fathers, brothers and sisters would curl beside a
blazing fire and watch a classic Christmas movie
called, “It’s a Wonderful Life”. This is what the true
spirit of Christmas should be.
The Christmas of the present is not what it used
to be. What once was a delightful, Christmas caroling
time is now a chaotic, screaming in someone’s face
nightmare. Relatives avoid each other for fear of
actually reliving bad childhood family moments.
Children still run around the house clamoring over
presents, but not from under a nice smelling pine
tree, but from an aluminum death trap waiting to fall
over and spit out sparks of electricity. While the
children still enjoy this time, they too have lost
all sense of the Christmas spirit. They throw tantrums
and scream and shout over the Furby or Pokemon doll
that they didn’t get. So what if their parents are
having trouble making ends meet, how dare they not be
able to buy them that ridiculously expensive toy?
Sure they won’t play with it after two weeks, but
hear them scream and shout if they don’t have it at
all. After the chaos that ensues, mother and father
will separate into different rooms and brother and
sister will crowd around the television. No, they
are not going to watch “It’s a Wonderful Life”, but
either a blow ‘em up violent version of it, or
another bland Christmas special on another boring
sitcom. This is what Christmas has now become.
The Christmas of the future still has hope
however. Somehow a solution will be found to bring
back the virtues of the past. Perhaps government
control could help relieve some of the annoyances of
the holiday season. For example, federal mandates
could limit all marketing of the Christmas holiday to
the month of December. This could prevent the trite
marketing ploy of “Christmas in May” and “Christmas in
July”. Mandates could also require big businesses to
donate 5-10% of their net profit towards charity. The
consequences of not following these rules could result
in fines of 5-10% of their net profit. Maybe by
forcing people to get into the Christmas spirit,
they might begin to enjoy it.
The true Christmas spirit has not been totally
lost to the endless sea of commercialization by
Hallmark, Disney, and Hollywood. Toys, money, and
media may have replaced the old virtues of happiness,
joy, and love, but as long as even one child is
happy, the spirit still lives on. Hope may arise for
another savior to come, someone who embodies the
ideals of the season. The future of Christmas may
look bleak, however someday society may sweep aside
the pile of past years’ presents and find the true
meaning of the holidays.