Has Christmas Been Bought? Commercialization and the True Meaning of Christmas

Every year it starts a little earlier. The Halloween candy is barely off the shelves before the Christmas music kicks in. Then come the ads, the doorbusters, the countdown to Black Friday.

And somewhere in the middle of it, someone posts "Jesus is the reason for the season" while standing in a checkout line with a full cart.

So let's talk about it. Has Christmas been bought? And if it has, how do we get it back?

By the numbers

Here's what Christmas looks like on a spreadsheet:

• Over $1 trillion. That's how much the National Retail Federation expects Americans to spend in November and December this year.
• About $1,650 per household. That's Deloitte's estimate for the average family's holiday spending in 2026.
• 37% went into debt. In a LendingTree survey after last Christmas, more than a third of Americans said they took on holiday debt, averaging about $1,200.
• 41% were still paying off the year before. Among those who borrowed, many hadn't finished paying for the previous Christmas yet.
• 47% regretted it. Nearly half of the people who went into debt said they wished they hadn't spent so much.

That last one stings. We celebrate the birth of the Prince of Peace, and then we spend January stressed about credit card bills.

This isn't new

It's tempting to think commercialized Christmas is a modern problem. It isn't.

By the 1800s, stores were already advertising Christmas shopping, and the American Santa we talked about in the last post was helping them sell. In 1939, President Franklin Roosevelt even moved Thanksgiving up a week, partly to give stores a longer Christmas shopping season. (People were so annoyed they called it "Franksgiving.") Congress ended up moving it back.

And in 1965, a little cartoon took on the problem head-on. In A Charlie Brown Christmas, Charlie Brown is fed up with how commercial everything has become. Finally he shouts out, asking if anyone knows what Christmas is really about.

Linus walks to the middle of the stage and quotes Luke 2. The shepherds. The angel. "For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord."

Then he says, "That's what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown."

Sixty years later, that scene still hits.

Gifts aren't the problem

Before we go any further, let's be clear: giving gifts at Christmas is a good thing. It might be one of the most Christian things we do all year.

Christmas is about a gift. "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son" (John 3:16, ESV). "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above" (James 1:17, ESV). When the wise men found Jesus, the first thing they did was worship him, and the second thing was open their treasures and give him gifts (Matthew 2:11).

And remember Saint Nicholas, tossing bags of gold through a window in the middle of the night? Giving reflects the heart of God.

So if you love giving gifts, good. Keep doing it. The problem isn't the presents.

The real problem

The problem is when the gifts take the Giver's place.

Jesus put it plainly: "Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also" (Matthew 6:21, ESV). You can tell what a season is about by where the time, money, and attention go. If December is mostly about the perfect gift, the perfect photo, and the perfect deal, our hearts will follow.

Here's how that shows up:

• Debt. "The borrower is the slave of the lender" (Proverbs 22:7, ESV). It's hard to celebrate freedom in Christ while signing up for a year of payments.
• Stress. Christmas was announced with "peace on earth." A lot of us spend it frazzled, overbooked, and running on fumes.
• Comparison. Social media turns gift-giving into a competition. Somebody always has a bigger tree, a better haul, or a cuter family photo.
• Crowding out. The busier December gets, the easier it is to get to Christmas morning without having thought about Jesus once.

None of that is new to God. But none of it is what he came for, either.

The first Christmas was poor

Here's what gets lost in all the shopping: the very first Christmas had almost nothing to buy.

Jesus was born to a working-class couple far from home. There was no room for them in the guest room, so Mary laid her newborn in a feeding trough (Luke 2:7). When Mary and Joseph later dedicated him at the temple, they offered two birds, the sacrifice the law allowed for families who couldn't afford a lamb (Luke 2:24, Leviticus 12:8).

The King of the universe showed up poor, on purpose.

Paul says it this way: "Though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich" (2 Corinthians 8:9, ESV).

That's the true meaning of Christmas. Not that we got more stuff, but that Jesus gave up everything to give us himself.

Ways to keep Christ at the center

You don't have to boycott Christmas shopping to fix this. A few simple habits can change the whole season:

• Set a budget before December. Decide what you'll spend while your head is clear, and pay cash or debit if you can. No gift is worth starting the new year in debt.
• Try the four-gift rule. Something they want, something they need, something to wear, something to read. Kids still get gifts, and you get your sanity back.
• Read Luke 2 before opening presents. Make it the first thing your family does on Christmas morning. It sets the tone for everything after.
• Do Advent. A short devotional or candle each week of December keeps Jesus in front of you before the 25th, not just on it.
• Give to someone who can't give back. Adopt a family, serve at a shelter, support your church's Christmas outreach. "As you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me" (Matthew 25:40, ESV).
• Give your time. Some of the best gifts aren't bought: a handwritten letter, an evening together, a visit to someone who's lonely this time of year.
• Say no to something. You don't have to go to every party or match every Pinterest board. Leave room to actually sit with the story.

The bottom line

Has Christmas been bought? For a lot of people, yes. But it was never for sale.

The stores can have Black Friday. They can have the doorbusters and the countdown clocks. What they can't have is the night God put on flesh and showed up in a feeding trough to rescue us.

So give gifts. Give them gladly. Just make sure the greatest gift is still the one at the center.

That's what Christmas is all about.