Last month, I led a dialogue about the holiday season at the November general meeting of the local Thomas Hart Benton Group of the Sierra Club. We talked about many things, but the subject that interested me most can be summed up in one word: Why? As in: Why have the winter holidays -- and most especially Christmas -- become such an orgy of buying and giving and getting and decorating and packaging and eating and so on? It wasn’t always like that, after all.

One school of thought would have us believe that it’s just that ol’ human nature at work -- that people are just inherently greedy and acquisitive. I used to think this myself, and I can see why many other people still do -- if they look no farther for evidence than American society, or even the larger industrialized world. Based on what I’ve read, though, and coming from multiple sources, that’s simply not the case. As I understand it, there have been many human cultures throughout history in which the people were apparently uninterested in the accumulation of ever-more material possessions. Moreover, some indeterminate number of these cultures still exist today, though the inexorable expansion of industrial civilization continues to have devastating effects on the traditional lifeways of many of these peoples. Someone very wise (unfortunately, I can’t recall who) once noted that "We don’t own our possessions; our possessions own us." Beyond the level of the possessions we need to provide for our well-being, I think that’s true.

If we can’t attribute our materialism to human nature, what does explain it? What complex of cultural factors has created this strangely religious devotion to consumption? I don’t use the word "religious" lightly or jokingly, either. Based on how much time people spend buying, working to pay for, and using their material possessions in comparison to how much time they spend engaged in the practices of their claimed religions, I’d say most Americans are devout members of the Church of Unending Consumption.

I do mean "created" in a literal sense, too. Only a few generations ago, the vast majority of Americans were conservers, not consumers. Corporations, through the medium of advertising, have pushed very hard to transform American society in that respect; the fact that we have flipped from a conserver to a consumer culture in a few generations is a powerful testament to the human capacity for deep social change.

It takes no genius to understand why corporations and their advertiser shills push us to spend ourselves deep into debt. Corporations exist to maximize profit, bottom-line, so you really can’t expect them to do anything else but exhort us to buy more stuff! That’s only one side of the deal, though. They can holler "Buy! Buy! Buy!" all day, but why do so many of us buy into that message? Why do so many of us take it in and become, in some sense, driven to consume?

I strongly encourage you to begin talking about that subject within your own family, your own circle of friends, and even your own workplace. In the interests of giving you something to think about, though, I’m going to offer the theory I find most plausible (which I cannot honestly claim credit for, of course). I am convinced that people are driven to consume because they are needy -- because their deepest needs as human beings are going unfulfilled. What needs am I referring to?

To answer that question, I think we have to look no further than the other social changes that have also been occurring while the transformation from conserver to consumer culture has taken place. It seems clear to me that people are born with a profound need to belong and to feel secure within their communities, their families, and their intimate relationships. And what has happened to the stability and integrity of our communities, families, and marriages over the past hundred years or so? How many of us barely know our neighbors, me included? How many of us have strained, difficult, and distanced relationships with our own sisters and brothers, mothers and fathers, daughters and sons -- much less our cousins and uncles and aunts and grandparents and so on? What’s the divorce rate these days? How many of us depend on drugs of one sort or another to make it through our days, whether it’s booze or bud or speed -- or Paxil® or Prozac® or Ritalin®? How many of us feel terribly alone in our own homes, even when we live with those most dear to us in all the world?

Fine, and quite depressing enough. But here’s what I find inspiring: As I already noted, the transformation from conserver to consumer culture proves that deep social change is possible. If we can flip one way, it seems obvious to me that we can flip the other. We can’t "go back" -- there is no path "back" -- but we don’t have to stay on the consumption treadmill, either, destined to never be content. How could we hope to be content? If your life is spent in pursuit of stuff, you can never be satisfied because there’s always something newer, faster, sleeker, bigger -- or simply more.

The way I look at it, if you want people to consume less for all Earth’s sake -- including our own sake, as part of Earth -- you won’t get very far by focusing on "less." The way to go is to focus on more -- more of what people really need, deep down to their cores. If we give people support and understanding and compassion and community and security, I’m quite convinced they’ll lose interest in the paltry substitute of piles of stuff.

And that sounds like the makings of happy holidays to me.

Organizational Resources

THE CENTER FOR A NEW AMERICAN DREAM offers a number of resources written from an explicitly ecological perspective. Some examples: free downloads of their booklets titled Simplify the Holidays and Tips for Parenting in a Consumer Culture; 100% post-consumer waste recycled paper holiday cards; an online holiday forum; and info about Alternative Gift Fairs.

ALTERNATIVES FOR SIMPLE LIVING offers lots of resources written from an explicitly Christian perspective. Some examples: their booklet titled Whose Birthday Is It Anyway?, which has even been published in several denomination-specific versions; children’s Christmas stories; "Whose Birthday Is It Anyway?" flyers, posters, and bumper-stickers; "Buy Me Nothing, I’ll Still Love You" flyers, postcards, and bulletin inserts; an adult discussion/activity guide; and a Christmas Campaign Kit.

Books

I haven’t read these books, so I can’t recommend any of them based on personal impressions; they’re simply titles I came across while doing research for the dialogue. I’ve been impressed with other works by Bill McKibben, though, so that’s where I’d start. If you want to find out more about these titles, you can search for them on Amazon.com (though I encourage you to buy through your local independent bookstore).

Hundred Dollar Holiday: The Case for a Joyful Christmas by Bill McKibben

Unplug the Christmas Machine: A Complete Guide to Putting Love and Joy Back into the Season by Jo Robinson and Jean C. Staeheli

Redeeming the Season: Simple Ideas for a Memorable and Meaningful Christmas by Kim Wier, Pam McCune

Simplify Your Christmas: 100 Ways to Reduce the Stress and Recapture the Joy of the Holidays by Elaine St. James

Christmas Unwrapped: Consumerism, Christ, and Culture, a collection of essays edited by Richard Horsley and James Tracey

December 2003