That's What Christmas Is All About Charlie Brown

It's no doubt that around the Christmas season there are myriad concert specials, television shows, new and old movies, cooking shows and everything else related to this time of year.

Commeralism has found its greatest niche yet...and it's never letting go. Now, I've never paid much attention to the commerical side of Christmas, per se, except after watching A Charlie Brown Christmas on TV last night. For anyone else who's watched it, you'll know what I'm talking about when I say that in the segment, Charlie was down because Christmas had turned into one huge marketing plow to get people to shop, spend more, buy more expensive gifts...etc.

Of course everything took on a humorous side. Like when Charlie and some other character who's name I can't recall, went down to look for a tree and all the lot had left were flamboyant colored metal ones, which the famous tiny tree with but a few branches stood hidden amidst the incongruous larger trees. In the end that humble little tree happened to turn out perfect for the play Charlie and his friends were putting on.

In a lot of ways, the true meaning of Christmas is like that little tree. The metal, oddly colored ones are like the media giants hovering over the season, drenching in shadow everything they don't like, and casting a bright, probing light everything they do. They are the ads you see on television, beckoning you to buy that new phone, that new iPod, that new flat-screen TV, that new CD. They're the over-sized signs in store front windows and shopping malls crying out in a shameless matter to buy, buy, buy!!!! 20% off, 50% off, buy one get one half off, all sweaters half price, doorbuster sales between 3AM and noon!!! Black Friday, I believe, is the kickoff of the media's hold on Christmas. Sure, it helps stores inch their accounts into the black again - hence the name Black Friday - but those absurdly early and late doorbuster sales seem like some sort of sardonic game to me.

Now before I go any further, I'll confess that two Thanksgivings ago my Dad and brother stood outside Best Buy in Sheboygan from ten o'clock Thursday night to five o'clock Friday morning so we could get a good deal on a new desktop computer we'd had our eye on, but other than that? No one in my family has ever willing lined up in front of a store with throngs of people just to catch a good deal. Yes, it does have to do with money being tighter this year than ever before, but I'm sure there's other people feeling the pinch too. So why is it that every Black Friday, hoards of people take the bate that retail chains and the media dangles before them? Plain and simple: people like to shop.

It's probably no secret that I like to shop too. I'm a girl, what can I say? I love walking into stores and looking at the sweaters, jeans, boots, dresses, scarves, purses, earrings...the list goes on. Also yes, I am attracted to good deals. Who isn't? But when stores start pulling out sales of the likes of Black Friday or those tri-level Christmas deals...I draw a thick chalk line. I can't stand stores that boast 20% off jeans, buy one get one half off!!! and then stick you with hidden costs or absurd rules that make it nearly impossible to figure out if you're actually saving money or having the wool pulled over your eyes.

I may be sounding cynical, but that's always been my view of shopping when it comes to Christmas. I have one more thing to admit, my view also has to do with my disdain for large crowds. I'm the type of person who values my personal space, and being squeezed right next to people or having to weave in and out of them like I'm walking a corn maze just to get somewhere...isn't my cup of tea.

I could also bring to light the many Christmas contests that go on. For instance, in A Charlie Brown Christmas, Snoopy decorates his dog house in a grandiloquent fashion in order to win the prize for best decorated house. Charlie rolls his eyes and remarks "even my dog has gotten into it." Meaning I'm sure, the commerical side of Christmas. This year, my Mom convinced my Dad to put up lights on our house, and it looks great. But again, even putting up Christmas lights can leak into that media side of things. Relatively close to my house there's a couple that always go all out with the lights. They're everywhere. On the roof, around the windows, twined up in the trees, and around bushes. If that wasn't enough, they also place myriad lawn ornaments everywhere including deer, snowmen, elves and not surprisingly...Santa and his sleigh.

Yes, my family and I drive past it every winter, and yes, it is fun to look at every year, and I'm sure his neighbor's look forward to it, but there's always a persistent glossy veneer over stuff like that. A shine polished and perfected by the media as it coats a thick layer of wax over what Christmas was originally intended to be. A grandiloquent display not for the eyes...but for the heart and mind. A remembrance of what Christmas is truly about. A message that is still portrayed on TV, even amidst the tumult of commericalism. A message told innocently and simply from one of Charlie Brown's friends who's name I still can't remember! Anyone know it? I believe he's the kid with the blanket.

In remembrance of Christmas, my church in Sheboygan holds one of the most enjoyable Christmas eve services I know. Well, at least that's my opinion! Before opening gifts and arriving at parties we all gather at church to celebrate a message that hasn't been completely lost amongst the automated voices coming eerily from lawn ornaments, the screaming signs declaring half off everything in department stores and the all around chatter rising from the media as a whole to distract everyone to what they feel is more important.

Well at the service we sing traditional Christmas caroles, read from the scripture about Jesus' birth, the three wise men and then at the end we all line up in a huge circle on the perimeter of the sanctuary with candles we were given, lighting them one by one and singing Silent Night. There is something so peaceful, so uncluttered, so removed from the media's shameless din and from everything else commerical about standing amidst my family and congregation, looking at those candles flickering all around me, and listening to voices softly singing one of my favorite Christmas songs. But church isn't the only place you can escape Christmas' commercial side.

It can be in your own home as well. The media, and a materialistic world tells us that it isn't Christmas without presents under the tree. I beg to differ. Yes, I understand that it's nice to receive gifts and have a little something to unwrap. Who doesn't like receiving gifts right? But once again, gifts aren't what Christmas is all about. Every year around this time the ringing of bells, cheery voices calling out and those famous red buckets are all blatant signs that for every privilege we enjoy, there are those less fortunate who view Christmas as just another day to struggle through and provide for those they love.

Christmas is a time of year to remember those less fortunate people, and give any way we can. Whether it be the donating of small toys to places like Salvation army, or dropping off nonperishable cans at local food pantries, or at food drives. It could be donating warm weather clothing, holding a brat fry...or any number of things. Granted, the Christmas season isn't the only time of year that we should all be giving to those in need, it is a time of year when everyone could use a little extra.

In addition, Christmas is about family. Although I talked about the darker side of those lucrative Christmas deals, I do enjoy going to the annual Old World Christmas Market in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin with my parents and visiting the hundreds of booths and vendors there. Everything from roasted nuts, to Swedish ornaments, handmade alpaca sweaters, German pancakes to a whole lot of other stuff! I ended up buying a cashmere black and white tweed scarf - I'm crazy for black and white tweed - and a pair of handmade earrings from a lady who's daughter I graduated from high school with. I always visit her booth. :)

You may be thinking, but isn't that contradictory? First putting down retail chains for playing on people's habits in order to bring in more cash and then talking about shopping at a Christmas market? Perhaps it is, but let me put it this way. I only have a problem with stores when they outshine what Christmas is truly about. When they shove expensive electronics and merchandise in your face or when they offer seemingly good deals that have a labyrinth of rules swept into their dusty corners...that's when I have a problem with it. Also, the Old World Christmas Market doesn't put forth any deals like that. All the vendors simply offer high quality, hand made, often imported goods at sensibly priced costs. Sure, there's lots of people, but I would brave such masses any day over the barely contained pandemonium of a crowded shopping mall any day. The difference in atmosphere has a lot to do with it to. At a shopping mall doorbuster sale everyone is trying to get that good deal and be one step ahead of the next person. Now, I would get into horror stories of people trampled to death outside Wal-Mart because frankly? Stories like that are a pathetic and very sad outlook on today's humanity. I won't tap that vein.

In closing, whether you adore Black Friday sales and all those Christmas specials and don't mind braving huge masses of people to get them, doesn't really matter to me. Of course, what does matter is what you think of everything. Your opinion is always welcome on my blog! Any feedback is appreciated.

To get myself into the Christmas spirit I make handmade Christmas cards. It really helps me get back to the basics of Christmas. I've always enjoyed handmade crafts, which is why I enjoy the Old World Christmas Market so much. There's always that special touch to something handmade: the slight mistakes, that inimitable quality and look, and the way it reaches out to you in a way that nothing store bought ever can. When I make each of my cards I think about the person I'm sending it to, and that makes it all the more special. I'm almost done with them, having one three and a half to go! Perhaps I'll post some pictures on my blog later on.

As Christmas draws near, I hope you too don't lose sight of what Christmas was intended to be about. Today's media has cast a long, hard shadow over everything, but I won't be fooled. Just remember...when you're walking into a store, passing neighbors, boarding the bus, greeting friends, buying clothes or at work...to anyone who dares to wish you a happy holiday, proudly tell them back Merry Christmas to you too.

People trying to take the word Christmas out of everything this season is another blog post entirely. Honestly? I can't stand it. But for now all I'll say is Merry Christmas everyone!!!!!