Bag yourself a merry little Christmas

Denver Post ^ | December 23, 2004 | David Harsanyi

[aynrandy]

What would we do without a friendly holiday column praising the crass commercialism of the Christmas season?

It seems that as some try to further secularize Christmas, the reflex has been just as harmful: condemning anything commercial associated with the holiday.

Trust me, buying your kids a "SpongeBob Nautical Nonsense" DVD in no way erodes their belief in the Shroud of Turin. In fact, if churches just started handing out Electronic Minimoto Sport Racers, they would be teeming with adolescent boys.

Not long ago, John Paul II, who doesn't exactly see it my way, drew a contrast between the simplicity of the Nativity scene and the frenetic "consumerist mentality." The Pope urged Christians to keep the Christmas celebration in proper perspective.

That proper perspective was clarified in a recent mass e-mail I received from a complete stranger, which began "Merry Christmas to y'all! I am writing ... to remind you that the Christmas Celebration is about Jesus the Christ, who was born as a result of the Holy Ghost power and laid in a manger."

While that was a beneficial and gracious reminder, this column isn't part of the anti-Christmas jihad, unless a Bratz Tokyo A-Go-Go Dance 'N' Skate Club is in some way heretical.

Yes, Christmas is Jesus' birthday. Ample time should be spent worshiping, eating, giving and caring - if that's your thing. After that, y'all go buy a Furreal Luv Cub Polar Bear for the kids.

Why? Because there's nothing more charitable than a healthy economy.

Scott Krugman of the National Retail Federation estimates that 23 percent of all yearly retail sales happen around Christmas. That is projected to be around $219.9 billion, or just a tad under the GDP of Sweden.

The NRF forecasts that consumers will spend more than $17 billion on gift cards alone, accounting for nearly 8 percent of the season's sales, or equal to the GDP of Honduras.

If you're like me - shades of agoraphobia - you try to shop online. The NRF found that 91 percent of merchants have seen online growth this holiday season, with 17 percent experiencing sales more than twice as high as a year ago.

Often, the economic power of (insert your own holiday) manifests in ways we may not even think of.

Take, for instance, Christmas lights - a perfect microcosm of what a holiday can do for the economy.

"We're in the holiday decorating business," says Tom Tolkacz, president of Denver-based Swingle Tree Co. "This Christmas season has been a great time for us. It seems as though people are back, investing in the spirit of the season, putting lights up on their homes and businesses."

You may think that Christmas lights are a matter of discretionary spending and a superb gauge of economic health, but you're wrong.

Tolkacz explains that his company has 10 profit centers, and when they did a discretionary spending pyramid, "We thought the Christmas décor would be the first service dropped." Yet it has ridden out the recession better than other divisions.

Swingle Tree's holiday division has exceeded $1.2 million in sales this season and can afford a full-time staff year-round because of Christmas.

Yeah, I know, it lacks the holiday drama of "A Christmas Carol." But it would give Bob Cratchit options.

If you believe in polls - and I always do when the outcome jells with my position - a 2000 Gallup showed that 85 percent of us think Christmas is too commercial.

Many of us are miserable sheepishly following our better halves through the mall, listening to Mannheim Steamroller doing "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen."

But when your better half throws two Hershey's S'mores Makers in the cart, she's doing all of us a favor.

So please have a Merry (Consumerist) Christmas.

David Harsanyi's column appears Monday and Thursday. He can be reached at 303-820-1255 or dharsanyi@denverpost.com.