Is Christmas a Time to enrich the Merchants?

Sunday afternoon! It’s Days after Christmas and New Year festive season. The Christmas thoughts cannot get over me.

I am thinking of this and past Christmas seasons. It has lots of things to do. Some are a must do, others have become are a norm. When I jog my mind back when I was a kid I just can’t help it but wonder the significance of some of these tasks in ‘my list of to dos’ in Christmas. You see when I was younger; I would walk along the streets of Nairobi with my dad. Normally, we would be shopping for the day.

A COMMON PHENOMENON: APPEARANCE OF FATHER CHRISTMAS

A common phenomenon then (By the way this still happens today), in and outside of almost all the shopping malls, there was Father Christmas. Usually, Father Christmas would sing the Christmas carols to kids and parents. Sometimes, they were artificial mannequins and would walk dancing in the shopping areas. They would be dressed in red and usually they had gift bags. He would give away gifts to shoppers and children. For kids, normally he handed over sweets to ‘the well behaved’ ones. (I really do not know how they would determine this). Perhaps this was meant to encourage the young ones to be well behaved during Christmas. For their parents on the other hand, shopping vouchers and food stuffs were given to them. This was done especial ally when they did shopping on certain items or spent a designated amount of money. You were to receive a token from Father Christmas when you bought marked gifts. This would encourage people to buy goods and gifts in mass. I enjoyed such moments of walking around doing shopping in Christmas. Everyone received free goodies on the terms and conditions of Father Christmas. I think this still happens perhaps in an almost similar version or an “advanced” version of it. People still do shopping.

IT TAKES TWO TO TANGLE: TWO GREEDY ONES

But what was the idea behind Father Christmas and his gifts? Was it not spend and spend for the greedy shoppers? It takes two to tangle. Two greedy people, one is wise and the other foolish. The merchants were the wise greedy ones who wanted to enrich themselves. How would they do this? Use the Father Christmas to attract the foolish greedy ones, to shopping areas by luring them with “free goodies”- in the first place free items did not exist. They made goods look cheaper by giving false discounts on essential items that are fast moving during the festive season. Then hand over free gifts to people randomly. With this point make people get to the shopping areas. Next make them spend even to their last penny in buying goods and gifts to their loved ones even those that they don’t need. And surely they did succeed. People would buy because they were taught that they must give gifts in Christmas.

THEN CAME BOXING DAYS

It’s in Christmas when we exchange gifts. Boxing days were then invented so that people would open gifts’ boxes they received from friends. Meanwhile the merchants would accumulate more and more wealth from bumper sales during Christmas. Was that not a good deal? A smart idea, isn’t it? It was something they have succeed and perfected even today.

DID FATHER CHRISTMAS EXIST?

But did father Christmas really exist? What is his significance in this season if he does and what is also his significance if he does not? Now, a Father Christmas does not exist. It’s just an invented idea by the merchants. It was something that was made in the minds of people greedy to get money from naïve shoppers who were careless. He does not exist anywhere in the real or virtual world and appears only in Christmas season. His appearance confirms the nature of human beings. Easy to deceive and quick to want and desire free quick things.

Forgive me but aren’t we lazy work? We love wages without working. The merchants understood this and exploited it to enrich themselves. To complicate matters, they targeted the children of poor greedy shoppers who are influential to their parents spending habits. And I think they did.

Father Christmas disguises himself as the custodian of good morals and so his work among the kids is seen as one which is corrective and preventive. He is thus a darling to them when he hands them small tokens as a reward to their behavior each according to his/her “measure of goodness.” The well behaved are given better and bigger prizes than their counterparts who misbehave. This idea maybe was meant to paint a picture of God who to them-children is just, good, loves and kind. This may actually be a nice thought idea to perpetuate but it fails to motivate good behavior among children.  It also brings a distorted message about God. However, such a picture is the only comprehensible idea that children can get of a good God. God is not such a “big man” standing beside us to check and supervise what we are doing. On the opposite, while he is nevertheless loving, caring, kind, good, powerful and righteous, but wants us out of our own free will to love him voluntary and so will not struggle to do good while hating evil. The system of reward and punishment as painted by Father Christmas is too a small thing to be compared to what God gives to them that love and treasure him. He gives abundant life to those who accept his gift from heaven who is Christ Jesus.

THE BRAINWASHING IDEA OF THE WISE GREEDY MERCHANTS

Friends as I write of this, I keep wondering when we will ever learn of this brainwashing thought of the merchants. Year after year they come and we do our shopping as if this is all that matters in life in this season. We exchange material gifts and life goes on. I have no bad blood with us giving gifts. I conquer that friendships and relationships are built and knit where there is mutual exchange of emotions and small or big presents. My only concern is, is there life after Christmas? I want to believe there is. Isn’t it? And so this season we must live with such prudence as befits it. We must be not extravagant. We will and have to do shopping but must too remember that we will have financial obligations awaiting us in January. Do your mathematics right and ensure that come the end of the season you will not regret having used all you wealth in a day. Do not blow all your money in days. Plan ahead.

A BETTER WAY TO CELEBRATE CHRISTMAS

I want to believe the best way we can celebrate Christmas is when we do things that have significance here on earth and will also earn us a place in eternity. The simple things that we do matter most than anything else we deceive ourselves matter more. The simple gesture of spending time with family and friends goes a long way in touching their hearts. We need to show kindness and unending love to all people even those you think do not deserve to be loved. We will place tongs of burning charcoal to our enemies’ head when we become and become a little bit more compassionate to them. We will cause them to change their stone hardened hearts if we became just a little flexible and decide we better “loose” and they win if this will cause peace and reconciliation. Moreover, if the gifts we’ll exchange are out of willing and sincere hearts, the amount and value then does not matter. If it pains your heart but does not leave you guilty then you are on the right track.

This Christmas will just end up like every other you’ve celebrated, if we decide to only spend our wealth on feasting, clothes and making merry and forget the significance of it. If we fail to share our gifts with the less fortunate and the most vulnerable of our society, then this will be like many other Christmas seasons. We will wake up that day after the festivities and regret that we have done nothing worthy being proud of if we will decide to only decorate our homes, cook nice food, exchange expensive gifts and wear expensive clothes if we do not realize that this happens because the savior of our life is given and has been given to redeem us. Our hearts must be ready to receive him gladly as if he mattered more to us than the season. The birth of Jesus will be of more significance if we accept him as the bread of heaven, feast of him and we will be saved. The festivities mood will be better if by all means we will choose to do acts of mercy.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, enjoy your Christmas seasons. Be a blessing to others in these seasons as I hope I have been through this message. Come New Year I trust you will have no regrets because you will not have only enriched the merchants but also enriched yourself and those that matters to you. But also share this among your friends.