My Turn

The Christmas spirit means more than a spending contest

By: Hank Reeves
   How did all this get started — the malls’ parking lots jammed to their outer limits, the dodging of shoppers coming out loaded down with shopping bags as you’re trying to enter the store, the madness starting in September, with the biggest days the day after Thanksgiving and Christmas. I don’t know — what’s it all about, Alfie?
   It must have happened one day when a caveman went out to get a loincloth and came back with a leopard skin. After his woman put it on the cry went out, and every woman in every cave wanted one too. And it’s been going on ever since. Now it’s called "shop ’till you drop."
   Credit card users are 900 billion dollars in debt for most things they could have lived without and the biggest abuse comes prior to Dec. 25.
   And now to step on dangerous grounds. All of this is caused no doubt by the descendants of the leopard-skinned cave dwellers. Having the power to provide everything thing they think their families need, they go overboard with the easy use of plastic cards.
   When do the people who work in the stores get to go shopping? My sympathy goes out to them, having lived through weeks of shopping madness. And still there are those who rush in at the last minute on Christmas Eve. Store workers should go on strike to have the stores closed the day before and after Christmas.
   And now a new wrinkle has been added. On Black Friday, there were department stores that opened at midnight, 3 a.m. and 6 a.m. Shoppers entered the stores wearing pajamas. People slept in tents along the sidewalk to be in line to purchase a so-called limited supply of something called PlayStation by Sony. Many bought two and resold them at considerable profit. What does any of this have to do with Christmas? My father used to say that if he offered to pay these people to do all this, they would refuse. But then he said the same thing about men who lifted weights.
   There was a time when a bicycle, ice skates, a Flexible Flyer sled, a Lionel train, a camera, a BB gun, a Gilbert erector set and maybe a typewriter were the most asked-for gifts to be under the Christmas tree.
   It’s great that "Merry Christmas" has been resurrected and can be seen displayed in major department stores and on occasion can be heard.
   Some Christmases are special and stand out in our memories. In 1943, my uncle who had lived with us was in the army overseas in World War II and got leave to come home. Then there was 1945 when we had to take down the tree because the living room was needed for a funeral. In those days, peoples’ funerals were conducted from the home.
   And then there was the year we decorated all our home when we lived on the ridge in Cream Ridge. A spotlight on the chimney with the smoke coming out and a huge blue and white star hung high in the tree swaying back and forth, topped it off. We were eating dinner when all of a sudden we heard people singing "Hark, the Herald Angels." Twenty people drove 6 miles out from Allentown to sing and say they came because out lights must have people inside with the Christmas spirit. Seeing and hearing them sent a warmth through me that I have never forgotten.
   Next year, please forget the entrapment of advertisements and sales, and commercialization. Save yourself the hassle, the money and being so tired and worn out that you forget you’re supposed to have enjoyment.
   The song says, "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas." I think that’s good advice. Merry Christmas to all.
   
Hank Reeves is a retired district insurance agent and registered representative who grew up in Chesterfield and resides in Columbus.