It has begun.
The hanging of decorations, the turning on of lights, the jingle of bells. It is officially Christmas.
There is a warmth and a glow surrounding the Christmas period, with children eagerly awaiting Santa’s visit and meeting with friends new and old to eat, drink and be merry.
But we all know what eating, drinking, gift giving and festive preparations means: money money and more money.
And where there those dishing out the payments, there are also those with open palms ready to take it.
Retailers, Manufacturers, Publicians and others such trades have titled Christmas, and the run up to it, as the Golden Quarter. A time of the year that no matter how shaky and unstable the trade has been previously, they know that they will turn a tidy profit.
This year between Brexit, Storms and Heats Waves, customer spending trends were erratic for the Irish retailer. However as Director of Retail Ireland says in the introduction to Retail Ireland’s 2018 Christmas Retail Monitor, “Strong footfall numbers from Black Friday suggest that the consumer is ready to celebrate the festive season…despite the choppy nature of the sales in the year to date, the overall trend remains positive…there is no doubt, the spending power is there.”
If you’re not spending money at Christmas, you’re making it and this seems to be the focus of most people in the months leading up to the Christmas period.
In fact, many people start saving and planning for Christmas a full year in advance to cater for the demands of the holiday period.
Many say that we have strayed from the true meaning of Christmas with the increase in commercial and materialist developments, however to actually validate that statement there needs to be one true meaning of Christmas and at a mere glance into Christmases passed, that definitely is not the case.
THE HISTORY OF CHRISTMAS
Ancient Mid-Winter Festivals
Mid-Winter has long been a time of celebration for civilizations all over the world. It was logistically the best time to celebrate as cattle who had been born in Spring were nicely reared and slaughtered in time for mid-winter.
It was also the perfect amount of time for enjoying a tipple as fruit had, had time to ferment.
Food and drink was peak and plentiful and at a time when nothing much else was happening and the weather was cold and dark, celebrations and festivities came to the fore.
It was also a time to rejoice the winter solstice as winter was coming to a close and it was time to look forward to another new year.
One of the greatest noted mid-Winter festivals was the Roman celebration of Saturnalia a holiday to honour Saturn – the god of Agriculture.
Juvenalia was another celebration that took place at this time honouring the children of Rome. Included in the celebrations was the birthday of Mithra, the god of the unconquerable sun. It was believed that Mithra, an infant god, was born of a rock. Mirtha’s Birthday, for some, was the most sacred day of the year. Mirtha’s Birthday was December 25th.
Christmas is Born
Pope Julius, who was pope of the catholic church from 337-352, was the one who coined 25th of December at the celebration of the Nativity. There is no record of Jesus’ birth, in fact there is evidence to suggest that Jesus was born in the Springtime, however this was a strategic move on Pope Julius’ part to seamlessly integrate the new religion into old tradition and culture.
In early Christianity, Easter was the largest religious celebration but quickly, the Feast of the Nativity customs and festivities spread across the world from Rome, to Egypt by 432 and reaching England by the end of the sixth Century.
Victorian Contribution
It was the 19th Century that brought the reinvention of Christmas and the turn toward the holiday that we know today. In the UK, in the 1800’s the population was largely made up of manufacturers, industrialists and shopkeepers. The Victorian era was also a time where families became less disciplined than previous era’s and there was move towards being more emotive. It wasn’t long before the workers in these trades realised that they could exploit the emotive nature of Christmas for commercial gain.
Religious dates became commercial possibilities and the invention of new dates called for an earlier Christmas period to maximise profits.
The transformation of shops meant that Christmas was announced in bigger and bolder ways each year. In 1888 JP Robert of Stratford, West Ham introduced the first Santa’s Grotto in his store and by the turn of the century all shop owners were doing this.
US Contribution
Meanwhile in the US, Americans began to adopt this family centred holiday of peace and in June 1870, Christmas was declared a federal holiday.
The Americans reinvented the Christmas holiday and made it their own. It was a cultural need of a growing nation that was later adopted the world over. Americans introduced gift exchanges, Christmas trees and Christmas cards to the culture of Christmas, moving us closer and closer to the Commercial Christmas that we know today.
A Commercial Christmas
Fast forward 200 years and we Christmas has become peak business season for retailers.
We see this beginning pre-halloween with a phenomenon called ‘the Christmas Creep’. The Christmas Creep is a term coined by the US and Canada to describe retailers constantly pushing out the start of the holiday shopping period. This isn’t merely to insight festive cheer but rather increase profit intake.
This is very evidently starting to arise in Ireland with a relatively new integration to our culture; Black Friday. Black Friday was originally an American event. Shops introduce sales the Friday after Thanksgiving, opening shops earlier to accommodate the mad rush.
The Irish retail industry has adopted the promotion and even has Black Friday week sales running up to Black Friday itself. This is in an attempt to compete with online global competitors and once again push out the seasonal spending. Traditionally 8th December – Farmer’s Christmas – would signal the beginning of Christmas shopping but in this day and age, that’s just too late.
We can also see the large scale presence of Christmas Markets that are present for the four weeks of Christmas. This tradition stems from the Middle Ages and tends to support craft and local produce.
Another new Christmas promotion gaining traction in the US, is ‘Super Saturday’. This is sales on the Saturday before Christmas, targeting last minute Christmas shoppers and making the most of those last few golden days
The Push Back
All you need do is walk around any town on some weekend at the run up to Christmas and the overwhelming nature of the commercial Christmas is more than evident.
People protest this commercialisation through protests such as ‘Buy Nothing Christmas’. This is an initiative set up by Canadian Mennonites to oppose commercialisation and keep religion at the forefront of their celebrations.
In 2004, the British Parliament introduced Christmas Day (Trading) Act. The act prevents shops under 280 meters squared/ 3000 square feet opening on Christmas Day. The idea is the cease the opening on large companies from opening on Christmas Day and putting pressure on smaller SMEs to also open.
Keeping Christmas Day as a day of relaxation, celebration and time spent with the family.
The Modern Irish Christmas
There is no doubt that we have all ‘bought into’ the commercialization of Christmas here in Ireland with Irish Household spending on average €2,700 in the month of December, nearly €866 more than any other month.
There is also a huge Irish Tradition of watching the Late Late Toy Show at the beginning of the Christmas period. The Toy Show has been running since 1975 and in 2018 1.35 million people viewed the show. A Christmas tradition based on the marketing of toys.
We have become emotionally invested in materials and brands. Christmas is a time of emotion and feeling and so provides businesses a perfect opportunity to utilise the experience and drive sales.
However, we buy gifts….for other people.
We spend money on celebrations….to spend with friend and family.
We spend time….treating ourselves and others.
Even our beloved Toy Show, in the words of presenter Ryan Tubridy, “decynises a nation for two hours” providing a show “unfettered by experiences and notions and politics”.
And Christmas Day is least active day for retail in the entire year.
The Commercialization of Christmas is very real but what Christmas stands for remains the same:
Family, Friends, Enjoyment and Celebration.
That’s the real Business of Christmas.
