by Billie Meyers

Created on: December 05, 2008   Last Updated: December 06, 2008

MY CHRISTMAS WISH

It's no wonder that people have mixed feelings about Christmas, me included. There is a definite lover-of-Christmas side of me, but the "bah humbug" in me rears its ugly head every once in a while. I love the lights and decorations, the music, and the gatherings. The "bah humbug" in me is usually related to the commercialism of Christmas.

What a pleasure it is to drive around town when the houses are all decked out with lights and greenery! My favorites are those that use the single-colored lights to highlight a beautiful old-fashioned wreath made with fresh greenery and fruit-classic and simple. However, in our town if you turn down the wrong street you are confronted with larger-than-life inflatable Santas, snowmen, and snow globes complete with whirling snow. Added to this are multicolored sheets of lights tossed carelessly over a bush or hung inside a window, drooping sadly on one side.

I am really not looking forward to seeing an inflatable nativity scene. Should such a thing exist, what would it look like? Would the baby Jesus wave from the manger? Would the wise men deflate then suddenly fill with air, 1-2-3, to emphasize their arrival? Perhaps the scene would be contained in a globe and the North Star would circle around the top!

Truly, I am not stuffy. I like non-classical things. I like new and modern, but there is just something fundamentally wrong with inflatable Jesuses and Santas. I am not a religious person, so the problem I have with them does not stem from a disdain for irreverence. It is related to the consumerism in this country.

I associate those inflatables with commercialism. They are traditionally used by car dealers advertising a sale. We've all seen the blimps tethered high above the business eager to unload its excess inventory on equally eager consumers. I like the tall, tubular shaped guy who deflates then appears to dance as he refills with air.

I refuse to believe that the inflatable snowmen, Santa, and snow-globe people find beauty in their displays. If they don't do it for aesthetics, they must do it to advertise something, but what?

They are advertising the fact that we are such a nation of consumers that we are no longer discerning about our purchases. We'll buy anything that is packaged and marketed to us. Yes, we'd even buy inflatable baby Jesuses. We are told by our leaders that spending money on this unnecessary junk will save our country. When we try to limit our consumption, we are given money by the government so that we can continue on like good little consumers.

What ever happened to those quality products that lasted so long they could be passed down to subsequent generations? I have several small kitchen appliances from the 1950s that refuse to quit working, yet I can't seem to find an iron that will last for longer than a year. I even have one of the first microwaves in my basement. It is monstrously large, but that thing works better than any microwave I've encountered since. I'd still be using it if it weren't so large.

Products are deliberately designed to fail after a certain amount of time so that a new one has to be purchased. I guess we are okay with that because we are keeping our country going. We are keeping people working. We are being patriotic!

My Christmas wish . . . That quality over quantity makes a comeback. That we find a way to keep our citizens employed that doesn't mean we have to consume large quantities of junk. Oh! Please let our country's resources be reallocated so that we no longer have to display inflatable Santas to show our patriotism!

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