Is Christmas Good For The Economy?

Is Christmas good for the Economy?

1 Peter 3:15

It’s that time of the year again. Black Friday sales are everywhere. We are beckoned to go out and buy gifts for our loved ones. Businesses everywhere are hoping for good sales this season. It is known as Black Friday because it is during this season that merchants hope to break into the black on their ledger sheets. Without a good Christmas sales season, many merchants may go bankrupt. this year is especially troubling as forecasts are that it will be a subpar shopping season. People’s lines of credit are tapped out, and with the rising prices, there just isn’t any room to spend. It seems as though Santa Claus might not be able to work his magic this year.

Is Christmas good for the economy? Let us answer this question first. Then me might speculate that if it isn’t good for the economy, what then is it good for?

At least in the West, people tend to spend everything they make. they also tend to spend everything they can borrow. This would be true, even if there was no Christmas. They would spend it on birthdays, national holidays, and the such. In order to prepare for the Christmas season, they have to pay workers overtime to make the gifts. They have to build warehouses to store these gifts. Then they have to hire extra help in the stores to sell the merchandise. Then they lay workers off in January and we have to pay unemployment benefits. This means that concentrating so much of the shopping into a narrow window actually adds unnecessary costs and diminishes profits. In an economy in which spending is more evenly distributed over the year, there would be less cost and greater profit. Birthdays are distributed throughout the year. why not concentrate our gift-giving on these days instead? Just thinking.

Merchants have tried to overcome the pitfalls of concentrating shopping into a narrow window by extending the Christmas season. This started with the Friday after the American Thanksgiving as the official start of the Christmas buying season. At first the gimmick worked. The people piled into the stores on Black Friday to grab up the merchandise which was supposedly on sale. It was so good that many stores opened up for Black Friday at 6 PM on Thanksgiving to deal with the crowds. Then came Cyber-Monday for online deals. They merchants wanted to make sure that their “Black” season got off to a good start.

Eventually, Black Friday started losing its influence. Many realized that if they only waited a few days that they could get better deals. In fact, many waited for the after-Christmas sales to but the heavily discounted merchandise that the stores were eager to dispose of.

Then Black Friday sales started moving to before Thanksgiving in the hope to regain sales momentum. Then came Christmas in July sales. They wanted to exploit the idea of Christmas into months in which sales are flat. From an economic point of view, this seemed like a good thing as it intended to spread sales throughout the year. This is because the word “Christmas” has been associated with buying. If Christmas is good for the economy, then why not Christmas in February too? But the abuse of such a holiday dilutes its significance. Christmas in an increasingly secular society is losing its grip. But no worry for the merchants. They will find some other gimmick to replace it with. There is no end to the genius of the marketers.

I would suppose if one’s business was to sell Christmas trees and decorations that Christmas is indeed good for their economy. But it is no big deal to change the decorations. Now there are Halloween lights, for example.

The United States and Europe have become multi-cultural. It used to be that they were “Christian” nations. But now there are people from all over the world. Some are Jewish. Some are Buddhist. Some are Muslim. Some are Atheists. For Christmas, at least in the sight of the merchants, in order to be of universal appeal to such a diverse group, must not be seen as being “Christian.” One of these adaptions was in the rise of the modern conception of Santa Claus, who little resembles the St. Nicolaus of history. This adaption was made to appeal to Jewish people to whom the story of the birth of Jesus Christ was of little importance. In many respects, even today, The Gospel of Jesus Christ is anathema to them. Santa Claus included them as well. As Santa is a known fiction, so one need be offended at a jolly fat man. He might put coal in your stocking, “so be good for goodness sake.” Pay no attention to the Lord Jesus who lights the coals of judgment and hellfire. They say that Santa knows if you’ve been bad or good. There is a general appeal to morality, but as a fiction, he need not be taken seriously. And if one is offended as being white, he can be recast in any color, or any gender as well.