Christmas Spirit - sources of eager excitement

public-facing displays of seasonal symbols during winter solstice run-up

The birth of Jesus of Nazareth, according to teachings and tradition, in the town of Bethlehem in the province of Judea somehow has come to fit the darkest time of year in the northern hemisphere, when the daylight hours reach their shortest period. And yet the historical reference to the Roman Empire's census and other indicators suggest the biological birth of the historical person of Jesus would likely be in springtime, instead. When and how that calendrical convention came about is a subject for other writers and inquiring minds. The photo, above, is the writing prompt for the question here of emotional response to Christmas in the customary December 25 time frame these days.

The picture comes from early morning in west Michigan on the day after Christmas and includes a neon text above the front door, "Merry Christmas," a wire-hoop likeness of a snowman (stovepipe hat, coal-looking buttons and eyes) There is a large inflatable example of a polar bear in red "Santa Claus" coat and cap, along with a bear cub in matching outfit of green. In the past 10 years these colorful nylon envelopes, held in full inflation by means of an electric fan and illuminated from the interior by enclosed light source(s), have become increasingly common to see on public display in the front yards of homes and sometimes businesses - not only for Christmas subjects but also the other times of national holiday (Thanksgiving in November, Halloween in October, Independence Day in July, Easter in March or April, and possibly Valentines Day in February). A few sections of street or country road might have several neighbors in friendly competition to light up their properties at night. But impressionistically maybe only 1 house in 5 or 6 has some form of seasonal decoration, mostly for Christmas, possibly matched by Halloween in elaborateness. Colorful yard decorations and window decorations may display modest messages of "happy holidays" or "santa stop here" or "reindeer crossing" (in reference to the flying sled that a team of reindeer is said to deliver heaps of presents to good girls and boys; or a lump of coal to children who misbehave). Similarly common are plug-in strings of small lights - plain white light or else colored ones (all red, maybe blue or green; sometimes multi-colored) that can be draped on bushes, ornamental trees, or along the eaves of a roofline. Residents who invest more time or money may create an ensemble of figures in wood or illuminated plastic to represent the Bible depiction of the Christ-child laid in a manger, flanked by parents, shepherds, and the three magi with their respective gifts of (then) great value: gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Then there are the inflatable characters from commercial (popular entertainment, consumer culture) sources: snowman, reindeer, TV movies or animated stories. Seldom, if ever, are Biblical subjects adapted to the inflatable form of lawn display - so far, at least.

The holiday that comes before Christmas is Thanksgiving, celebrated in USA on the 4th Thursday in November. Sometimes the calendar puts Thanksgiving relatively early or late in reference to the fixed date for Christmas on December 25. By custom the decorations inside and outside the home change to Christmas on the day after Thanksgiving or in the week after that, as time allows and according to the level of interest or investment that the person has in decorating seasonally. By contrast to the household schedule for decorating, retail stores have a bigger incentive to dress up their inside and outside with seasonal color, sometimes changing the background music to add atmosphere, too. So the stores sometimes begin displaying Christmas themed things for sale soon after Halloween at the end of October, skipping the low shopping season of Thanksgiving in order to make room for the high shopping season of Christmas gift giving (or treating oneself by reason of the gifting holiday).

The aggregate effect of the retail and the residential public displays (including local government offices inside and outside occasionally) of Christmas season (much less so the coinciding celebrations around the winter solstice of Hanukkah or Kwanzaa) is that a person is given many reminders and references to the forthcoming holiday. There are many emotions that can be stirred up by the decorations, along with melodies of seasonal church hymns or pop culture Christmas songs that can be heard in stores, in homes, on seasonal-only radio playlists, and sometimes integrated with outdoor displays. In no particular order, these are some of the associated emotions, some of which may contribute to the well-documented phenomenon of people surviving until the holiday and then dying (e.g. patterns observed in nursing home or long-term care facilities; sometimes in hospitals, too).

• Each time the season comes back, some people are reminded of previous years of Christmas gift exchange, feasting, catching up with friends and family. When those memories are happy, then the current year is burnished by the echoes of those earlier times. When those memories are sad (death of a loved one who now is conspicuously absent from the celebration), then the emotional echoes are colored by that.
• Ten or 20 years of growing up at home establish the Christmas season pattern of good things one may expect, wish for, and sometimes be fulfilled: gifts, special foods, seasonal music, reuniting or visiting relatives and friends. As a result, even years into one's adulthood, there is a sense of anticipation and undefined "something good awaits you" to raise one's emotions.
• In the transition from child to becoming the parent of one's own children, or fulfilling the role of uncle or aunt to the children of siblings, then there is an indirect thrill: no longer being the recipient of grown-ups' gift-giving, now the person can delight in the excitement displayed by the next generation of children, and thereby bask in the reflected emotional warmth that is generated.
• Some people have bad memories of gifts that went wrong - either as recipient or as giver - which adds a layer of "giver anxiety" (fear of failing to meet recipient standards of good versus failing gift) or the complement, "recipient anxiety" (fear of useless, unwanted, or inappropriate status or brand name to fit one's self-image). So this negative emotion can make the season less glowing, or in some cases something to get-over with as quickly as possible.
• As children grow out of the toys and new clothing age, there are fewer gift choices. So the obligatory wrapping, presenting, and opening presents turns hollow; going through the motions and emotionally flat. In that case when there are no fun, frivolous, or daily-needs (practical) things to give, then some givers or entire gift-exchange groups (family, workmates, school friends) take some of these paths, separately or in combination to substitute the emotional excitement of childhood with other sources of meaningfulness: homemade gifts, consumable or experiential presents (instead of material objects or prepaid gift cards at a retailer of the recipient's choice), or "secret Santa" with price cap to keep givers from trying to out-do each other in terms of expense. Secret Santa means that names are drawn from the pool of participants; the recipient is not supposed to know the giver's identity.

Looking back at this list of emotional responses to Christmas (leaving aside the religious significance that is the root of all the commercial and cultural expressions), all of these listed sources of Christmas emotion could apply singly or in combination to the photograph at the top of the article. People do have some shared emotional resonances to the holiday reminders all around them, but individually the exact mix of positive and negative emotions will vary from one year to the next, and according to the trajectory along the arc of a lifetime. Whether child, parent, friend, stranger, grand or god-parent, there will be differing layers of meaning that rise to the surface, sometimes unexpectedly and without any apparent reason, as the seasonal triggers brings a surge of joy or a hint of dread that desaturates the bright lights and cheerful melodies, rendering them monochrome. On top of the individual combination of feelings, there are the larger currents of change in the river of history. In 2019 the shrill shininess is much different to the relatively muted commercial character of seasonal customs and displays from 1919, so soon after the Great War stopped. But then, perhaps in the eyes of 1919 people there were feelings of nostalgia for standards for celebrating "like it used to be" in the generation before that. Maybe the contemporary displays and novel musical compositions were considered distressing when judged relative to the earlier status quo and the childhood memories of 1919 adults. In the same spirit, perhaps the people of 2119 will view the customs of 2019 as quaint and simple and pure in some sort of way, compared to the way that things turn out in 2119.

Consumer glee - short-lived and shiny

Particularly during and after WWII the idea of disposable (single-use, discard, landfill) products and planned obsolescence has grown to the point that any other relationship to one's tools, chattels, supplies, and stockpiling is hard to imagine. Before the age of consumerism many people selected things in terms of value (function, durability) for price paid. In those days there were fewer choices of maker, design, and retail source. But now a given item can be bought new, used, donated, cannibalized from other parts. And there will often be several styles, build-quality, status (brand name) perception, and so on. Besides the historical changes in the buying, using, repairing or discarding life cycle, another set of questions concerns the emotional sequence of events that culminates in purchase.

neighborhood dollar store with diverse stock of low-priced items (author photo 12/2019)

 At first glance it might seem that parking your car and going into the brightly-lit, abundantly stocked, colorfully packaged and cheaply priced dollar store would be so different to a suburban indoor shopping mall or a city center department store as to be impossible to compare. That may be so when it comes to prices and expectation for employee service, but looking at the buyer's emotional response perhaps there is a similar stimulus-response pattern at play.

Sales experts learn to recognize "buying signals" that point to the person's willingness or objections to completing a transaction. These vary by personality, financial experience, and conditions of engaging with the potential purchase and way of coming to a decision. But normally they say that a decision begins with emotional force - either attracted or repulsed by the matter at hand. Later on some reasons can be produced, if necessary for self or others, to tell why the particular item was needed or was merely desired. This same order of operations (first emotion, afterward reasoning) can be found whether buying a house, a heifer, or a hat. So in this way the dollar store, above, or a fancy boutique on an exclusive street have something in common when it comes to tickling the buyer's imagination or tugging on their heartstrings.

The in-person experience includes deciding to travel to a retail location, making oneself presentable to go out in public, browsing without aim or consulting with a worker to find a product, admiring the labeling and packaging, making a comparison of the brand-name item with the store-brand item, and then committing to one to take to the cashier for purchase. Many times now it is possible to return an unopened item that is accompanied with sales receipt to receive refund or credit for another purchase. But a generation or two ago this was customarily not allowed.

Beyond the in-store shopping experience now there is the added complication online of being able to window shop endlessly for items of an even larger inventory of things still being produced as well as some things that are vintage or no longer in production. With the spread of commercial and home-use 3-D printers, maybe even long ago items can be ordered and "printed" on demand, thus expanding the universe of possible purchases back in time to very old models indeed.

Money and research time is spent on understanding the science of marketing and purchase-decisions. But so far very little study has gone into the end of the life-cycle to understand the factors surrounding a decision to abandon, give away, throw away, or shove to the back of the storage area (pole barn, basement, rental storage space, spare closet, attic or garage) to make possible a whole new purchase. In other words, what sorts of things trigger a change in status from trusty tool to useless clutter: broken, difficult to use after one's powers weaken or change, fashion, eclipsed by newer or better instance of the thing, and so on.

In contrast to the universe of meanings and materials for ancient humans who were highly mobile and were burdened with relatively few pieces of material culture, nowadays there is a constant stream of shiny new things to gaze at, covet, and sometimes obtain as gift from others or by oneself, or simply purchase outright in cash or by credit that is divided into monthly or weekly payments. The idea of "retail therapy" has been described by others to mean the momentary elation in claiming ownership of a tastefully packaged item of delightful design. The psychological equation of having more things with having more joy, social status, or peer respect is surely present in some instances of browsing or purchasing. It does cause a temporary boost in self-esteem or feelings of being unrestricted in getting something that fulfills a desire or even an impulse. So whether a shopping cart is cashed out in the dollar store or is paid for in a luxury boutique, the consumer narrative of seeking (hunting and gathering?) and finding the object desired seems to be about the same, although the size of the bill will differ in each of these two very different locations. And while very expensive-looking cars park at the dollar store right next to vehicles that seem to be near their end, at the pricey shops it will only be the fancy cars parking nearby. But all consumers setting out to buy something are rewarded with that emotional response that comes from completing a transaction and leaving the store with the new possession in hand.

Will the consumerism mode of economic life ever go back to the pre-consumer patterns? Or will things somehow combine both logics: one of durable value, the other of disposability that leads to the next new thing. Those questions belong to the future. But, of course, in the words of near-future writer William Gibson, "The future is already here – it's just not evenly distributed" (quoted December 4, 2003, The Economist).