The Consumerism Claus(e): How the Holidays Got Tied to Buying and Selling

Holidays evolve — and consumerism is often the driving force.

One year, the Easter Bunny started leaving baskets of goodies for kids to find in the morning. Another year, children started dressing up and going door-to-door on Halloween to “trick or treat” for candy. Yet another year, the middle of February got designated the perfect opportunity to shower your loved ones with gifts and a sentimental card.

December is no different. In fact, an even more intense evolution has happened to the end-of-the-year holiday season. What was once a fairly austere time of celebration, steeped in either pagan beliefs or religious doctrine, has become one of the most consumeristic times of the year for much of the world. Seasonal spending in the United States is expected to reach $902 per person in 2024, and those numbers have been increasing year-over-year for over a decade.

So, why such a dramatic shift? How did the holiday season become so synonymous with consumerism? Let’s take a brief look at the Decembers of the past to determine how we ended up here, then start speculating about where it’s all headed.

Believe it or not, the holiday seasons in December used to have very little to do with buying things. Some were tied to religion. Some were tied to nature. However, none of them even resembled the spend-crazy seasons they are today.

The Christian celebration of Christmas was originally aligned with the winter solstice and much more akin to a one-day carnival. For many centuries, most of the Jewish community considered Hanukkah a “minor holiday” without the religious restriction of more important observances like Passover. Meanwhile, Kwanzaa wasn’t even created until 1966.

The 1800s saw the widespread dissemination of three things that would completely redefine the holidays: the Industrial Revolution and the works of both Washington Irving and Charles Dickens. Starting in Great Britain, the Industrial Revolution completely changed the economic and consumption realities of continental Europe and the United States. Working conditions were often horrendous, but the average person was much more capable of purchasing non-essentials and therefore capable of being a consumer.

On top of that, Washington Irving’s short stories about 19th-century America and Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol had completely rebranded the holiday season. Now, the scenes of celebration were much more family-centric and kid-friendly. By the end of the 1800s, both Christmas and Hanukkah had become inextricably linked to the idea of giving gifts to loved ones.

Santa Claus was appearing in advertisements as early as the 1920s. That said, it wasn’t until Coca-Cola launched a massive advertising campaign in 1931 that this smiling, plump, and consumer-loving Santa became fixed in the public imagination. Nowadays, Santa Claus is an ambassador for almost any company looking to sell something around the holidays. In fact, some academics argue that these traditions of buying and selling have all but consumed the non-commercial aspects of the season.

The Consumerism Claus(e) has certainly yielded sales. There’s no denying that December is a powerhouse of profit for many industries. However, do we truly understand the costs? Customers are weary of commercialism, with 90% of people wishing the holidays were less materialistic. Additionally, brands are wasting over $600 million on digital ads during the holidays because of increased competition and oversaturated markets.

The only alternative is to go against the grain — to offer more honest and less invasive holiday marketing. Here’s what I mean by that.