**SEASONS GREETINGS**
Yet another orgy of crass consumerism has come and gone.
Scott used to call this “socks ‘n’ underwear day”
When your father kept you, not out of love, but in order to “control the costs” xmas day isn’t really much to get work up about.
The thing about Richard is not so much the cheapness, it was the total emotional disconnect. He didn’t know me and he didn’t know Scott. As such he was completely at odds with what Scott and I would have been interested in.
Xmas holidays weren’t a time for family. Xmas holidays were a time to stay out of Richard’s grasp.
Sure, I acknowledge that his mother was cruel. He even said as much himself. However if he had cared he would have gone the extra mile to not have been anything like his mother. And honestly, if he really cared and he knew how fucked up his mother was why the fuck did he have her raise my brother and I?
My uncle Doug, who was my father’s younger brother, was the absolute polar opposite to Richard so far as personality goes. Doug would smuggle presents from our mother into the house by claiming they were from him.
And there really wasn’t anything in the way of xmas dinners as kids. Once we moved to Canadian Forces Base Downsview in ’83 we went out to Sue’s parent’s house for xmas in ’83 and I think ’84. But that was it.
As I mentioned before, we flew to Toronto for the xmas holidays of ’82. I met my paternal grandfather that xmas. Arthur Herman Gill was his name. It wasn’t until 2011 that I would learn that Richard was trying to butter up his father to take care of me. This would explain the testy relationship between Richard and his father. And this would explain why we never went to see Arthur again even when we moved to Canadian Forces Base Downsview in April of ’83 even though we frequently went out to Oshawa to see Sue’s parents or even just to go shopping at Knob Hill Farms.
Probably explains why I don’t get too worked up over xmas.
When I look around at Xmas, all I see is crass consumerism and faux outrage from those who wear their religion on their sleeve for others to see.
Prior to Coca-Cola creating the modern day Santa Claus as an advertising campaign and consumerism taking over the holiday the church actually frowned upon tying the birth of their lord with consumerism. That’s actually where “Happy Holidays” came from.
Even ChatGPT gets it.
Short answer: because that part completely wrecks the outrage narrative.
Longer, more honest answer 👇
Historically, Catholic Church has never been cool with turning the birth of Christ into a sales event. The Church’s problem with modern Christmas isn’t “people won’t let us say Merry Christmas,” it’s that Christmas got hollowed out and refilled with cash registers.
A few key points that almost never make it into the rage-bait loop:
1. Christmas was meant to be liturgical, not commercial
For most of Christian history, Christmas was:
- a religious feast day
- surrounded by Advent (fasting, restraint, preparation)
- focused on Mass, charity, and humility
Open-air markets, flashing signage, and “BUY MORE JOY” campaigns would have been seen as… frankly vulgar.
2. The Church repeatedly warned against merchandising Christ
Well before modern culture wars, Catholic teaching criticized:
- profiting off sacred symbols
- using holy days for personal enrichment
- turning worship into spectacle
There’s a reason the Bible story everyone knows is Jesus flipping tables in the temple — that wasn’t subtle.
Selling indulgences nearly tore the Church apart once already. They’re painfully aware of how bad optics around money can get.
3. “Put Christ back in Christmas” is a modern slogan — not a traditional one
That phrase didn’t come from medieval theology. It came from:
- 20th-century advertising culture
- reactionary politics
- identity signaling
Ironically, the people shouting it the loudest are usually doing so under:
- inflatable Santas
- corporate jingles
- Amazon trucks
- credit card debt
If you actually followed historic Catholic attitudes, you’d be closer to:
“Take the cash registers out of Christmas.”
4. Culture-war Christmas needs a villain — nuance won’t sell
Rage bait works because:
- “They banned Merry Christmas” is simple
- “Capitalism hollowed out a religious feast and the Church warned against it” is complicated
Cable news can’t sell ad slots on a lecture about late-stage consumerism cannibalizing sacred time.
5. Quiet irony: the Church lost this fight decades ago
The truth nobody likes admitting:
- Christmas is now economically indispensable
- Retail calendars matter more than liturgical ones
- December 25th belongs to supply chains, not bishops
So instead of fighting commercialization head-on (which they’d lose), many churches retreat to symbolism and slogans.
Bottom line
If this argument were being made honestly, it wouldn’t be:
“You’re not allowed to say Merry Christmas.”
It would be:
“Why are we using the birth of a religious figure to sell SUVs, phones, and scented candles?”
But that question makes everyone uncomfortable — especially the people pretending to defend tradition while standing inside a mall.
If you want, I can also break down how Christmas went from a minor feast to a retail keystone, or why Saturnalia did the same thing in ancient Rome, just with better wine and fewer credit cards.
Beeshive 