The Ghosts of Christmas Presents

[ Read the original article at UCSB’s The Current.]

If there’s one thing that’s as old as shopping for Christmas, it’s a nagging worry about turning a religious observance into a frenzy of debt accumulation. It’s a sentiment that reaches back to when America was a backwater and the celebration of Christmas went from drinking and carousing to shopping and gift-giving.

“People have complained about the excessive commercialization of Christmas ever since its incarnation in the mid-19th century,” said Lisa Jacobson, a UC Santa Barbara professor of history. “There’s still ambivalence about the commercialization of Christmas. I don’t think that ambivalence has ever entirely disappeared, but it was probably more pronounced in the 19th century than it is now.”