"The holidays are a comforting and joyful time of the year. It’s sweater season, and for some, snow starts to fall. And of course, Christmas is right around the corner. But, many companies take this as an opportunity to sell products. Is this a good or bad thing?" -- Zoe Deetz, 8th grade & Ruby Deetz, 6th grade
The holidays are a comforting and joyful time of the year. It’s sweater season, and for some, snow starts to fall. And of course, Christmas is right around the corner. But, many companies take this as an opportunity to sell products. Is this a good or bad thing?
Now don't get me wrong, there are many commercials I love and look forward to seeing during the holiday season, like the Iconic Hershey's "Holiday Bells" that has been around since its original debut in 1989. Or the tearjerker, "Homecoming" by Edeka.
Maya Mastropasqua is an 8th grade Lit Arts student who feels that she's seeing Christmas commercials beyond the typical season.. “Through the whole year I feel like I see hundreds, because even when you see them on billboards,”said Mastropasqua. “But especially during Christmas season, I feel like they're there like every time you turn on your phone.”
The most important part of Christmas for Mastropaqua is giving gifts to people she loves. “Not necessarily receiving but you know, Christmas and showing your appreciation to your friends and family by getting something you know that they’ll enjoy,” she said.
Mastropasqua thinks that Christmas advertisement is helpful when choosing gifts, but can over materialize the holidays.“I think Christmas ads can be helpful in picking out what gifts are nice. But yes I do think they materialize things way too much then they should.” Mastropasqua says that she thinks that commercialization around the holidays puts a lot of pressure on people to buy expensive gifts.
We know Christmas as a largely commercialized holiday, but how did it gain such popularity? There are two periods in American history that were turning points in creating the Christmas that we know and celebrate today.
The first period was the 1840s, when Christmas entered the Northeast, and its big cultural centers like New York and Boston, as a commercially tied holiday aimed towards children. Before then, Christmas wasn’t widely celebrated in America. The Puritans who settled in New England in the 1600s had even made it illegal to celebrate Christmas. As said in the article Is Christmas too commercial? Well, that’s the reason it became popular.
English-speaking people said that Christmas was the time to get drunk. Presents would normally be given on New Year’s day. This was how the two holidays were celebrated in the 17th and 18th century. Source
It was the German immigrants who introduced the idea of Christmas as a child-centered holiday as well as a time to give gifts to others you love and care for. Turning Christmas into a gift giving and child centered holiday was an amazing marketing opportunity. Source
The new idea of a child-centered, gift-giving holiday was most widespread in the Northeast but was not largely adopted in the South through the early 1900s, when mass advertising and mass production changed Christmas and its celebration forever.Source
In this second period, marketers worked to standardize Christmas and make the celebration more popular. They created mass advertising campaigns on radio to promote a standardized version of Christmas. Their brand-related jingles interrupted programming, and they even sponsored entire programs to spread the idea of a commercialized christmas. Between the 1930s and 1950s, pop-culture songs like “White Christmas” by Bing Crosby, helped sell the idea of what the ideal Christmas should look like. Source
Stores also began to send out shopping catalogs with images of Santa Claus to entice customers into shopping for their distant, mass-produced goods. Macy’s New York department store also helped develop the image of Christmas as a business opportunity when it organized its first Thanksgiving Day Parade in 1924, McClelland-Nugent said. McClelland-Nugent, associate professor of history in the Katherine Reese Pamplin College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences at Augusta University.The parade has traditionally launched the holiday shopping season. The modern image of Santa Claus, however, came from Coca-Cola advertising campaigns from the 1930s. Source
With all of these factors put into play, we can see how Christmas has become as consumer-focused as it is now.While we can say for sure that Christmas is over-commercialized and materialized, it's still an amazing holiday to spend time with family and friends. As well as making and sharing gifts to show appreciation for the people you care for.
Now don't get me wrong, there are many commercials I love and look forward to seeing during the holiday season, like the Iconic Hershey's "Holiday Bells" that has been around since its original debut in 1989. Or the tearjerker, "Homecoming" by Edeka.
Maya Mastropasqua is an 8th grade Lit Arts student who feels that she's seeing Christmas commercials beyond the typical season.. “Through the whole year I feel like I see hundreds, because even when you see them on billboards,”said Mastropasqua. “But especially during Christmas season, I feel like they're there like every time you turn on your phone.”
The most important part of Christmas for Mastropaqua is giving gifts to people she loves. “Not necessarily receiving but you know, Christmas and showing your appreciation to your friends and family by getting something you know that they’ll enjoy,” she said.
Mastropasqua thinks that Christmas advertisement is helpful when choosing gifts, but can over materialize the holidays.“I think Christmas ads can be helpful in picking out what gifts are nice. But yes I do think they materialize things way too much then they should.” Mastropasqua says that she thinks that commercialization around the holidays puts a lot of pressure on people to buy expensive gifts.
We know Christmas as a largely commercialized holiday, but how did it gain such popularity? There are two periods in American history that were turning points in creating the Christmas that we know and celebrate today.
The first period was the 1840s, when Christmas entered the Northeast, and its big cultural centers like New York and Boston, as a commercially tied holiday aimed towards children. Before then, Christmas wasn’t widely celebrated in America. The Puritans who settled in New England in the 1600s had even made it illegal to celebrate Christmas. As said in the article Is Christmas too commercial? Well, that’s the reason it became popular.
English-speaking people said that Christmas was the time to get drunk. Presents would normally be given on New Year’s day. This was how the two holidays were celebrated in the 17th and 18th century. Source
It was the German immigrants who introduced the idea of Christmas as a child-centered holiday as well as a time to give gifts to others you love and care for. Turning Christmas into a gift giving and child centered holiday was an amazing marketing opportunity. Source
The new idea of a child-centered, gift-giving holiday was most widespread in the Northeast but was not largely adopted in the South through the early 1900s, when mass advertising and mass production changed Christmas and its celebration forever.Source
In this second period, marketers worked to standardize Christmas and make the celebration more popular. They created mass advertising campaigns on radio to promote a standardized version of Christmas. Their brand-related jingles interrupted programming, and they even sponsored entire programs to spread the idea of a commercialized christmas. Between the 1930s and 1950s, pop-culture songs like “White Christmas” by Bing Crosby, helped sell the idea of what the ideal Christmas should look like. Source
Stores also began to send out shopping catalogs with images of Santa Claus to entice customers into shopping for their distant, mass-produced goods. Macy’s New York department store also helped develop the image of Christmas as a business opportunity when it organized its first Thanksgiving Day Parade in 1924, McClelland-Nugent said. McClelland-Nugent, associate professor of history in the Katherine Reese Pamplin College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences at Augusta University.The parade has traditionally launched the holiday shopping season. The modern image of Santa Claus, however, came from Coca-Cola advertising campaigns from the 1930s. Source
With all of these factors put into play, we can see how Christmas has become as consumer-focused as it is now.While we can say for sure that Christmas is over-commercialized and materialized, it's still an amazing holiday to spend time with family and friends. As well as making and sharing gifts to show appreciation for the people you care for.