Christmas, once characterized by its values of goodwill, love, and joy, has evolved into a true product of commercialization. What I mean is the moment Halloween ends, Christmas decorations appear in stores and the wave of ads and commercials start, all of which feature a familiar Christmas carol as the background music. Not to mention, every year Thanksgiving gets completely trampled over by the anticipation of Black Friday sales events with everyone ready to get a head start on holiday shopping. While we all know these things to be true, there is something that many of us don’t consider: how this holiday came to be a wild spectacle of spending, advertising, and consumer culture.
When you imagine Christmas, what do you see? Perhaps twinkling lights, a beautifully adorned tree with presents piled beneath, or Santa Claus and his reindeer. Yet, these familiar symbols of the holiday weren’t always part of the Christmas tradition, though, they became widely known largely due to the influence of holiday marketing.
Christmas’ story starts as a Christian holiday celebrating the birth of Jesus. However, during the 19th century, as urbanization and industrialization took hold, the rise of department stores offered a new avenue for holiday marketing. Stores like Macy’s and Montgomery Ward recognized the potential of Christmas to boost sales and they began advertising the holiday as a time for family gatherings and gift-giving.
Advertisers quickly jumped on this trend, promoting Christmas not only as a religious celebration but as a secular holiday that could be enjoyed by all. The growing popularity of this commercialized version of Christmas marked the beginning of the holiday’s shift from a religious observance to the consumer-centric celebration we know today. Christmas’ commercialization can be credited for many iconic features of Christmas in the modern day but the most infamous is the creation of the iconic story and image of Santa Claus.
Inspired by the 4th century Christian bishop Saint Nicholas—who was known for his kindness and generosity, especially toward children—Clement C. Moore wrote “A Visit from Saint Nicholas”—known as “The Night Before Christmas”—describing Santa as a jolly old man with a white beard flying through the air in a sleigh pulled by reindeer, first written in 1823. Advertisers translated this description into an image. The one we widely recognize today as the modern image of Santa Claus is the image of a jolly old man in a red suit from a Coca-Cola ad from 1931.
In the end, Santa Claus’ image and story were manufactured to spotlight gifting presents, specifically to children, in the name of Christmas. Another prime example of the extent of Christmas marketing is in one of the more subtle yet impactful marketing strategies: the promotion of Santa Claus’ milk and cookies tradition.
In the early 20th century, the dairy industry was struggling, so they capitalized on the growing Christmas culture by marketing the idea that Santa drinks milk with his cookies. This clever advertising move not only helped boost milk sales for the industry but also ingrained this tradition into the modern Christmas celebration. This manipulation of Santa Claus’ image and the milk and cookies tradition highlights how deeply commercialization has shaped the modern Christmas experience.
While the story and image Santa Claus helped solidify the link between Christmas and gift- giving, the pressure to spend only intensified. Today, such a change has placed Christmas’ focus on materialism and consumerism, especially in the act of gift-giving that Christmas has come to be centered around. While gift-giving can be meaningful and expressive of love, there is an increasing focus on monetary value in gifting during the holidays. This focus attributes to more and more money being spent on holiday gifts.
Accordingly, in 2023, each shopper spent nearly $620 on gifts on average (Shewale), and for the 2024 holiday season, the total expected amount to be spent per shopper on holiday gifts averages at $925 (Issa). Contributing to this, quite frankly, is the pressure to spend and splurge on the expensive gifts because it is easy to equate price with value in the atmosphere that our consumer culture creates. With this being the case, Christmas gifting feels more about the price tag than the thought behind it.
The pressures to spend are amplified with extravagant holiday sales events and advertising. Holiday sales events are a huge stimulant of holiday consumerism. Over the last five years, Christmas retail sales have accounted for almost 20% of total revenue (“Winter Holiday FAQs”). Big Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales pull in billions of dollars alone (Shewale). Not only do sales events draw in customers, but other elaborate advertising strategies also rake in the consumer dollars.
Take Starbucks’ annual holiday drink menu and cup releases that often signal the start of the holiday season for example. The limited-edition factor of these cups and menu items entices customers, driving up sales. Other ads like the Hershey’s Kisses Christmas commercial (pictured above)—an iconic holiday commercial that first debuted in 1989 which features the Kisses as a bell choir playing “We Wish You a Merry Christmas”—evoke nostalgia in customers as a marketing tactic. The Hersey’s Kisses Christmas commercial does this strategically by having remained almost entirely the same since its release.
The holiday season of shopping is crucial to retailers, so they do all they can, acting as puppeteers and using the warm spirit of Christmas to their advantage. With seemingly irresistible deals that make you feel like you’re being done a favor or limited time offers that are made to obliterate your impulse control, retailers use the holiday to drain all the money they can from shoppers.
Overall, the stress of holiday shopping and expectations of the “perfect” Christmas that commercialization and society can pile onto people can seriously affect the mental health and finances of individuals. Many people struggle with the stress of finding the right gifts, managing their finances, or feeling like they’re not doing enough to make the holiday special. In fact, 89% of people say they experience stress during the holiday season with many reporting that the pressure to meet high standards of gift-giving and decorations only makes things worse (Bethune).
The financial strain is significant, with many Americans relying on credit cards or dipping into emergency savings to cover costs. In 2023, nearly 30% of those who used credit cards for holiday shopping still hadn’t paid off their balances, reflecting the growing toll Christmas has taken as it has become increasingly commercialized (Issa). As Christmas stress accumulates like falling snow flurries on the ground, it’s no wonder that some people begin to dread the holiday season.
Ultimately, while gifts and festive celebrations are a part of Christmas, the holiday’s true spirit is about love, togetherness and shared moments with loved ones. The real spirit of the season tends to get lost in the holiday madness. So, in the midst of the holiday chaos, it’s important to remember what really matters—being present with the people around us.
Works Cited:
Shewale, Rohit. “37 Black Friday Statistics (Sales, Trends & More).” DemandSage, 27 Dec. 2023. Web. 11 Nov. 2024
“Winter Holiday FAQs.” NRF, N.D. Web. 2 Dec. 2024.
Issa, Erin El. “2024 Holiday Spending Report.” NerdWallet, 8 Oct. 2024. Web. 14 Nov. 2024.
Bethune, Sophie. “Even a Joyous Holiday Season Can Cause Stress for Most Americans.” American Psychological Association, 30 Nov. 2023. Web. 13 Nov. 2024.
