Every year as soon as Thanksgiving is over, and sometimes before, I start hearing people talking about the 'holiday season.' This season begins on black Friday and ends on New Year's day. It is a season of over-indulgence and commercialism.
Soon, there will be clamors from the masses to "Keep Christ in Christmas!" It is a noisy argument every year between Christians who want public and reverent Christmas displays and atheists who want anything else. It is the wrong argument. For those who would like to recenter the holiday, the argument is not with the atheists who want control of public displays. The argument is with the commercialism which would sap our homes and hearts of faithful celebration.
Black Friday, so named because companies (at least in theory) make a profit, has nothing to do with our Holy day. If shoppers want good deals, and companies are offering them, then everyone can go home happy. Shoppers laden with gifts and decor for the upcoming holiday can pat themselves on the back for saving pennies. Black Friday is many things. It is exciting! It is not holy. It is not a proper start to a season of holiness. If we define our holidays around commercialism- and isn't that what we do when we choose black Friday as the start of the season- this is certainly more damaging to the true meaning of our holy day than cards and signs which wish us "Happy Holidays!"
Reclaim Christmas. Not in the public square- someone else can fight that fight- but in your home. Insist that this year, in this house, Christmas will be about celebrating the incarnation of our Lord. That single impossibly glorious event which defines our faith in so many true ways will not get lost in senseless seas of green and red. This year we will not celebrate the shopping season, even if we shop. This year, with reverent hearts, we will observe Advent.
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