Holiday Spending in America

Over time, holidays have contracted more than a spiritual or patriotic meaning. Major holidays aren’t just holidays anymore, they’re events. Family events, social events, events in which everyone is trying to outdo one another. Obviously, coming together with your friends and family is a sentimental time, but there is also a lot of pressure to be remembered for some sort of holiday presentation. In 2010, Americans spent 135.16 billion on Christmas, 30.50 billion on thanksgiving, and 17.60 billion on valentines day. That’s a boatload of money that we’re putting into our holidays. and theres a lot of controversy to whether or not that’s a good thing. Anyways, back to the numbers.

Those figures include not only gifts but also food and parties related to holiday events. There is a huge drive in our culture to be the biggest and the best. Everyone wants to give the best presents (which by the way soak up 47.2% of holiday spending) or throw the best parties (which are another 36.2 percent). Life, whether it be families or friend groups or the entire world, is a popularity contest. And America knows damn well that popularity contests are expensive. Think of a beauty pageant: Those girls and women spend thousands of dollars on dresses and hair and cosmetic who-knows-what on an hour performance that they likely will not be remembered for. Holidays bring out a similar drive in people: spending hundreds on buying the most presents and throwing the biggest parties. Whoever comes out on top is a friend or family favorite and then what? That person has a free ride until someone else comes up and kicks them off their spot. It’s brutal, but it’ the truth. Holidays that were established for very meaningful events have become nothing more than commercialized monsters. People die on Black Friday.

On the other hand, some people aren’t as spiritual about their holidays. There are thousands that celebrate christmas without closely practicing the religions that created it. Some people don’t practice religion at all, Christmas is just a nice holiday. So why not indulge? If people want to spend however much on their holidays, so be it. I see no problem. Granted, yes, it is a little extreme, but we all have something that we get a little too excited about.