The Secular Christmas Monster

A good friend of mine, Mr. Anthony James "AJ" Perez from Filipinos for Life, have made a "guns blazing" first-hand experience on how the West poisoned our celebration of Christmas, or so we who are concerned on the degradation of Filipino culture think. 

And I have to concur with him. 

Original post here. Reposting with [comments] 

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Every year, especially during Christmas season, the traffic gets worse, the malls are more packed, and we are driven by this unquenchable thirst for more purchases and items to buy. [In short, CONSUMERISM. Trust me. The part about the traffic is absolutely true.]

photo courtesy of iremit.com.au

I see something sinister behind all this. Something is out of place. [And I sense likewise.]

I am aware that this season is traditionally the season to give gifts to our family, friends, co-workers, and just about anyone. It is the season of giving - or at least it used to be. In our desire to give material gifts, are we spawning a monster feeding on our excessive consumerism? [Looks like we are. And that monster might be more dreadful than the Kraken.]

For example, people were all up in arms when it was declared that prices of electricity will be going up. That meant that prices of basic goods are soon to follow up as well. You think that would deter people from going to the mall? [Wait for it...] Today [this was posted December 25th], at the Mall of Asia, the crowd was so gargantuan you would think it was the feast of the Nazareno. What happened? I thought we were trying to save money because of the high prices of goods? [In short, all the rage was just a front for their personal ambitions.]

photo courtesy of https://www.facebook.com/Sanlakas14

Why were there so many people at the malls this season? It's like we're all zombies out there, with no other choice, no idea of what fun is outside of the mall [Well, not me.]. Fr. Chito Dimaranan, SDB, my mentor from way back [Mr. Perez was a Salesian ex-semnarian. WAS.], has this to say about this mall culture:

Malls are now the only leveler in society. There is no exclusion, but inclusion. At malls no one knows if one lives in a shack, as everyone has smartphones, same dresses, and the same disheveled hair look. In the mall, everyone can more or less have the same thing, provided you pay, of course. No membership dues. No monthly consumables ... just plain and simple fun defined according to the rituals of the cathedrals of commerce.

Are we slowly veering away from the true spirit of Christmas and turning towards a consumerist, politically-correct, no-nonsense, "happy holidays" kind of season? [Sadly, yes. And it just boils my blood.]

I have experienced the mad rush of Christmas shopping before. Several years back, it was different. It felt different. Back then, there was a spirit of rushing, a tone of necessity with the shopping. People want to get their shopping done so they could get back to the family ASAP and spend more time with them. The past few years, however, I have this feeling I cannot quite put my finger on. It's like we are slowly turning into mindless robots. Or animals. Animals driven by instinct to shop for more and more each year. [And the more the media shows this kind of "Christmas" as the norm, the more it would get worse.]

My feelings tell me that the more we participate in this consumerist culture, the more we miss out on Christmas itself; ironically, in our quest to buy more gifts, we are slowly forgetting that Christ's incarnation is one of the greatest gifts mankind has ever received. [I concur. Need I say more?]

I will not be surprised if we become like this a few years from now:

[...which though I fear would happen, I also hope it woudn't]

We Pinoys are proud that we have the happiest celebration of Christmas in all the world. That is going to change if we continue to feed this monster of consumerism. Call it cliche, but Christ really is the reason for the season [besides, the world owes Christ for all the celebration, but they just can't say it.], and the more we mindlessly buy things that will not make us happy, the more we are led away from the one true source of happiness itself. 

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Personally, I was drawn to this concept when I was a kid. But never again. 

In the 17th to 18th century, some crackpot English Protestant exiles in America advocated the non-celebration of Christmas just because it is un-Biblical (just like the local cults say here) until they settled in the compromise that December 25th will be celebrated as a holiday of humanity. They call themselves the Puritans. 

And in this compromise, though they lost the advocacy not to celebrate Christmas at all, they mounted a new strategy: to keep Christmas as distant to celebrating Christ's birth as possible. 

America and Europe fell to that concept, so did Asia. And the Philippines will be next. 

No thanks to the Puritans, we have relegated Christmas as a mere family gathering with no definite reason for the celebration. 

Oh, I forgot. St. Nick has a Christmas gift: 

Yes, my friends. The real Santa Claus gave a black eye to the guy who believed that Jesus is not God.

So what are we gonna do? 

KILL THE MONSTER AT ALL COSTS!