A Christian Lamely Justifies Her Black Friday Plans

[Remember, the tagline, which used to always appear, is…Somebody Has To Do It.]

Today I had thought I would do up a little something about the business of giving thanks, but the more I thought about it, the more I found I was actually thinking about Black Friday. The week, of course, in its official capacity, is all about gratitude. But while all the potatoes are being peeled and the sugar poured out like water, the mind does take mental note that Friday is the only time to use that 60% off coupon at ACMoore and take a turn around Alice’s Closet where all the things, All Of Them, will be on sale. In other words, I have already calculated my capitulation to the sicko gods of the age in the most satisfying way possible.

What’s that meme? America: the only place in the world where you say thank you for the stuff you already have one day, and the next day you bash down the doors to buy new stuff. The words are plastered over a picture of the turkey on the top and a crowd of angry shoppers on the bottom. The pointed condemnation reflects to us our poor moral sense, obviously.

I don’t think that’s really the issue. In all cultural honesty, what is the difference between the massive stuffed bird and all the trimmings, which we consume with all enjoyment and pleasure on Thursday, and going out to buy a lot of stuff, which also makes people feel pretty happy, on Friday? The two days are about about the individual person being stuffed and satisfied. One is eating, the other is spending, but I don’t really see a huge difference between the two. Except that one is Good and Right, and the other is Bad and Evil.

I think both can be bad and evil, just as they could be maybe not “Good” but perhaps “Not That Bad”. Certainly, me as a Christian tsk tsking over crowds of happy, or indeed extremely angry, shoppers, is not very helpful. Especially if I am just going to go online with all my money and click click click. (Which I am totally going to do.) Do I even have a sense of what all the food and presents are about? Or am I just shocked that other people would rush out to Spend it All so that they can Have A Happy Time because consumerism is totally evil, even when I myself am totally obsessed with what I’m going to be buying over the space of an entire month? What’s that called? Don’t tell me.

No, I think it’s that we don’t–and I’m speaking in broad hippopotamus like brush strokes here–have a true concept of a feast, and only a few people know What On Earth is being celebrated. Or should I say In Heaven.

For the Christian, even if the outward trappings are essentially the same–turkey, pie, shopping for presents–there ought to be a different posture, a more breezy joy. The difference is grounded in the fact that both Thanksgiving and Christmas are feasts that we celebrate, not moments to grab and consume. Think of the difference between the Garden of Eden and the Garden of the Empty Tomb. This profound difference should at least be reflected in the way that we talk about what we’re doing, if not in the arrangements of the table.

It irritates me (which is remarkable, because, as you know, I am very rarely irritated about anything) when I am asked, “When are you having Christmas?” Or told, “We’re having Christmas on such and such a day.” Same with Thanksgiving. “When are you having Thanksgiving?” As if Christmas or Thanksgiving are something that passively occur, you sitting there with your pie and your tinsel, having it and eating it too.

We ought to say, “When are you celebrating Christmas?” “Upon what hour will you be celebrating Thanksgiving?” Both occasions are feasts. They require the celebratory rejoicing of the whole person, the engagement of the mind, body, and perhaps even the nettled and struggling emotions, to join with other people in the marking of an important day and hour. Christmas is the celebration of the Incarnation, God’s breaking into the world to save what and restore what was broken and lost. Therefore, we celebrate, we rejoice. We don’t sit back and have. Likewise, Thanksgiving is a cultural feast, a time when people of every race and creed are supposed to pause and say Thank You in whatever direction they feel like they ought to be saying it.

Feasting, while it does involve the consumption of lots of things–the body consumes food, the eye takes in beauty, the hands receive gifts of various kinds–is the active whole person posture of rejoicing. It means possessing something to rejoice over. It means orienting yourself towards something beyond you. In the feast, you are not the center, God is.

So, I think it’s possible for Christians to pop out on Black Friday and enjoy the chaos of gathering up a lot of items to give away, if that particular activity contributes to the Feast, the joy to come. But if it’s just because one way or another you have to Have Christmas, it would be better to stay home and Have Some More Pie.