The Daily Alaska Empire

Commercializing Christmas Is a Good Thing.
(Vancouver Western Tribune.)

The heading of this paragraph may cause quite a number of people to pass the column by this week, but if the readers will stay with it until the close, perhaps they will share the opinion.

Recently I overheard two devout and no doubt estimable people discussing the "terrible situation" into which the institution of Christmas has fallen. No longer do the public remember the divine origin of the celebration. Instead it has become a period during which merchants dealing in all classes of goods snap a killing, taking full advantage of the Christmas spirit propaganda dispensed by the churches and adding to it much of their own.

It is a good thing that we have an institution which inspires us to giving once a year, and awakens in our hearts that warmth which unselfish thinking and unselfish acting alone can generate. We are all better for it. The Christmas spirit comes along and heals many breaches between friends and families, for who would be a Scrooge? And following the example of the Three Wise Men, we give gifts, the tangible expression of the Christmas spirit working in us.

With the giving idea motivating so many people at one time, it is self-evident that there must be some source of supply for the remembrances which are exchanged. Ordinary people are too busy to make the things they give away. And so the factories and the tradesmen fill the need, spreading before us infinite varieties of things from which to choose. Because the factories and the merchants have organized themselves so thoroughly, we are able to give more and better gifts than otherwise would be possible.

One more thought. The commercialized Christmas provides employment for thousands upon thousands in all countries, every month in the year. Thousands of children are fed and clothed and given shelter because Christmas has been commercialized. It is hard to believe that Our Lord would not have it so.