Christmas Satire Essay, Research Paper

Today’s Christmas is no longer a celebration of

Christ and happiness, but is a celebration of a now

fake, commercialized, overweight Santa Claus. The idea

of eating yet another turkey dinner while watching a

forgettable Disney movie on television brings tears

of pain, not joy, to one’s eyes. The main virtues

of the holidays have gone from an idealistic white

wonderland, to a migraine-causing festival of greed.

The Christmas of the past was once a beautiful

celebration of the birth of Christ. Families would

come together to enjoy the holidays together in a

peaceful, loving environment. Children ran around in

a pine scented home, clamoring over the presents that

Santa had brought the night before. Even if the family

was struggling, children would appreciate the hard

work and thought put into each gift. At night mothers,

fathers, brothers and sisters would curl beside a

blazing fire and watch a classic Christmas movie

called, “It’s a Wonderful Life”. This is what the true

spirit of Christmas should be.

The Christmas of the present is not what it used

to be. What once was a delightful, Christmas caroling

time is now a chaotic, screaming in someone’s face

nightmare. Relatives avoid each other for fear of

actually reliving bad childhood family moments.

Children still run around the house clamoring over

presents, but not from under a nice smelling pine

tree, but from an aluminum death trap waiting to fall

over and spit out sparks of electricity. While the

children still enjoy this time, they too have lost

all sense of the Christmas spirit. They throw tantrums

and scream and shout over the Furby or Pokemon doll

that they didn’t get. So what if their parents are

having trouble making ends meet, how dare they not be

able to buy them that ridiculously expensive toy?

Sure they won’t play with it after two weeks, but

hear them scream and shout if they don’t have it at

all. After the chaos that ensues, mother and father

will separate into different rooms and brother and

sister will crowd around the television. No, they

are not going to watch “It’s a Wonderful Life”, but

either a blow ‘em up violent version of it, or

another bland Christmas special on another boring

sitcom. This is what Christmas has now become.

The Christmas of the future still has hope

however. Somehow a solution will be found to bring

back the virtues of the past. Perhaps government

control could help relieve some of the annoyances of

the holiday season. For example, federal mandates

could limit all marketing of the Christmas holiday to

the month of December. This could prevent the trite

marketing ploy of “Christmas in May” and “Christmas in

July”. Mandates could also require big businesses to

donate 5-10% of their net profit towards charity. The

consequences of not following these rules could result

in fines of 5-10% of their net profit. Maybe by

forcing people to get into the Christmas spirit,

they might begin to enjoy it.

The true Christmas spirit has not been totally

lost to the endless sea of commercialization by

Hallmark, Disney, and Hollywood. Toys, money, and

media may have replaced the old virtues of happiness,

joy, and love, but as long as even one child is

happy, the spirit still lives on. Hope may arise for

another savior to come, someone who embodies the

ideals of the season. The future of Christmas may

look bleak, however someday society may sweep aside

the pile of past years’ presents and find the true

meaning of the holidays.