May You All Get
A $33,000 Christmas Tree
Let me start by wishing everybody a healthy, happy holiday season. That said, I’m really not Scrooge, but I can’t get beyond the coming, annual onslaught and tidal wave that is the crass commercialism of the Christmas holiday season, when malls are flooded with shoppers pushing and shoving for the remaining sales, and parking lots are overloaded and streets backed up with traffic while parents are assaulted with a non-stop barrage of commercials showing glowing and smiling little tykes who can’t wait to pester their parents for the latest expensive toys.
And while many still cling to the fantasy that the Christmas season has morphed into a time of good will for all people, there is that not so subtle message about the celebration of the birth of Christ, not exactly symbolic of my Jewish heritage, but that’s for another discussion.
It is not the most wonderful time of the year for families struggling to make ends meet whose children will be disappointed that they won’t be getting the latest toys because it’s more important to buy food and pay rent. As always, Christmas focuses more on what the kids will get under the tree but as the Christmas retail season gets intolerably longer and the commercial assaults get more intense, it’s hard to remember what the holidays are supposed to be about.
Speaking of garish, the most expensive Christmas tree in the world costs $11.4 million and is located in the luxurious Emirates Palace Hotel in Abu Dhabi, capitol of the Muslim United Arab Emirates, where Muslim not Christian is the state religion. It isn’t the tree that’s obscenely expensive, but rather the trimmings, like diamonds, gold, pearls, sapphires and emeralds.
If $11.4 million is out of your price range, possibly more affordable is the 30-foot, Giant Everest Fir Commercial Christmas Tree with Warm White LED Lights for the sale price of $33,264.72, a 5 percent savings from the original cost of $35,015.49. And of course it includes free shipping.
If I was that lucky boy or girl who had everything, I would kill for the Astolat Dollhouse Castle, which costs $8.5 million and is detailed with fine architecture, engineering and design including 29 rooms, a pool and a gym. It even has a bar with real but tiny liquor bottles. Too pricey? Try a Lamborghini Aventador Model Car for $4.6 million, a Shimansky Soccer Ball at $2.59 million or possibly a Steiff Louis Vuitton Teddy Bear for the low price of $2.1 million.
So Home Depot began putting up Christmas displays before Halloween, leaving the poor Thanksgiving turkey in the dust, most likely because people don’t buy a lot of Thanksgiving related things. But at Home Depot there are rows upon rows of fake trees with LED lights, inflatable Santas and Mrs. Claus and their elves . And soon the music will begin and it will be everywhere, like an approaching blizzard with nonstop Christmas songs that I have heard a million times if I’ve heard them once, songs like “Jingle Bells” and “White Christmas” which make me cringe. My daughter asked me why I don’t like the Christmas music and I tried to be gentle and not to be honest that they make my teeth hurt.
It’s it the most wonderful time of the year for WalMart, Costco, Ikea and Lululemon and all of the other mega and mini-corporations who rely on the Christmas season to make their bottom lines and who are praying to Saint Nick to end the supply chain logjams so they can fully stock their shelves. It’s that magical time for the Christmas tree farms that count on their main product to keep them afloat, the radio stations that play non-stop Christmas songs that you have heard a million times before, the companies that make Christmas cards, the innovative entrepreneurs who will lease you a Christmas tree, fully decorated, and all the creators of the gimmicky, holiday items that everyone just must have and is more than ready to throw their money at and the companies that know this is no child’s play and hope they can market the next Beanie Babies, Game Boy, Cabbage Patch Kids, Furby or Tickle Me Elmo, and make a billion dollars.
Good Housekeeping lists the top adult gift for 2021 as a portable radiating campfire for $27.99. Made with recycled paper briquettes and wax, the portable campfire burns for three hours. I prefer a real campfire with real wood and real flames but I am old-fashioned. Another big seller is the Temperature Control Smart Mug for $99.95 and who doesn’t want a mug that can keep your coffees temperature remotely from your phone. Not me.
Another terribly popular gift is a 3-in-1 Apple Charging Station for $29.99, although it’s just $25.99 if you shop now. The station will help keep a nightstand or desk organized and it holds an iPhone, a pair of AirPods and an Apple Watch and comes in white, black, indigo and metallic finishes. But can it core a apple, if you’re not a Honeymooners fan, you won’t get it.
And then there is the EcoSmart Sweatshirt for $9.99, the most popular men’s sweatshirt on Amazon, available in 16 colors. Or maybe pick up a personalized, gold and cubic Celestial Constellation Necklace, for $32.95.
The best kids’ gifts, according to Good Housekeeping, are topped with Crazy Forts for $46.26 from Amazon and I don’t understand why it’s 25 cents more than $46. This takes blanket forts to the next level with a construction set, which allows families to make forts that look like towers, domes or castles even though as a kid I always liked to make my own forts out of stuff I found outside.
The Got2Glow Fairy Finder for $34.88 from WalMart is a “magical jar” with more than 30 fairies that can be “traded” between friends. The Pokémon Trading Card Game Battle Academy at $19.99 is for kids who want to learn how to play the Pokémon Trading Card Game.
There have been creative alternatives in protest to the commercialized version of Christmas. The “Buy Nothing Christmas” started in 1968 when one Ellie Clark decided to publicly disregard the commercialism of the holiday.
The “Buy Nothing Day” is held on Friday after Thanksgiving and is a day “for society to examine the issue of over-consumption.” In 1997, it was moved to “Black Friday,” the Friday after Thanksgiving, and one of the 10 busiest shopping days in the United States.
Various gatherings and forms of protest have been held on Buy Nothing Day to draw attention to overconsumption:
Credit card cut-up: Participants go to malls or stores with scissors and cut up their credit cards as a message for people who want to put an end to mounting debt and extortionate interest rates with one simple cut.
Zombie walk: Participant wander like zombies around shopping malls with blank stares and when asked what they are doing, they describe Buy Nothing Day.
Whirl-Mart : Shoppers silently steer their shopping carts around a mall in a long conga line without putting anything in the carts or actually buying anything.
Wildcat General Strike: The 2009 Buy Nothing Day was where participants buy nothing for 24 hours and keep their lights, televisions, computers and other non-essential appliances turned off, their cars parked, and their phones turned off or unplugged from sunrise to sunset.
Buy Nothing Coat Exchange: Coats are collected throughout the month of November and brought to various locations within each state.
So hopefully, you can avoid some of the pessimism that I feel and can join me to meditate on the real reasons for the holidays, to celebrate each other and to show our love and compassion and hopefully it will be:
“…the most wonderful time of the year
With the kids jingle belling
And everyone telling you be of good cheer
It’s the most wonderful time of the year
It’s the hap-happiest season of all
With those holiday greetings and gay happy meetings
When friends come to call
It’s the hap-happiest season of all
There’ll be parties for hosting
Marshmallows for toasting
And caroling out in the snow
There’ll be scary ghost stories
And tales of the glories of
Christmases long, long ago
It’s the most wonderful time of the year
There’ll be much mistltoeing
And hearts will be glowing
When loved ones are near
It’s the most wonderful time of the year
There’ll be parties for hosting
Marshmallows for toasting
And caroling out in the snow
There’ll be scary ghost stories
And tales of the glories of
Christmases long, long ago
It’s the most wonderful time of the year
There’ll be much mistltoeing
And hearts will be glowing
When loved ones are near
It’s the most wonderful time
Yes the most wonderful time
Oh the most wonderful time
Of the year.”