Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year. It is a colorful and absorbing celebration of wealth and Earthly pleasures that modern, secular, Western civilization has brought to our world. Christmas, especially in America, celebrates several important aspects of modern culture which are valuable and worth celebrating more than any others: wealth, technology, justice and endulgence. All four of these are rooted in the inventions of Western civilization, without which a thing like the modern American Christmas would be impossible: capitalism and the selfish standard of value.

Wealth is at the center of a holiday as joyful as Christmas. Christmas is a holiday that requires and rewards the wealthy like no other. The mass-commercialism of Christmas is best enjoyed by those who have engaged their minds and expertise at building wealth and managing it well, so that at this time of year they can justifiably reward themselves and those they value with expensive, endulgent, extravagant gifts of all varieties.

Wealth is also created in enormous quantities by the existence of this most capitalistic of holidays. Advertizing gets more colorful and ubiquitous and inventive with every passing season, as new innovations in media allow businesses of every type to display their wares to all, to make millions on an original and rewarding product which will bring joy to people to buy it or receive it as a gift. Retailors who fail to address the mass desire to celebrate and spend by their customers at this time of year often will not survive to see the next holiday season. Succeeding from one Christmas to the next is the true sign of a successful consumer marketing and business plan, and has generated one of the most memorable aspects of the holiday season: “Black Friday”, when retailors’ year-long preparation for this festive season are either rewarded by their passing from the red ink of loss to the black ink of profitability or not.

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