The holiday season is officially under way. The pretty lights come out from the basement, the festive songs resonate across the airwaves, the retail stores brace for the crazies and the tacky Santas take their awkward place on the rooftops of many winter enthusiasts.
On top of generally preparing for the upcoming celebrations, many consider the month of December the giving season. So what is it about the holiday season that provokes such unusual giving behavior?
The many markdowns in stores that drive people to trample each other to death on the dreaded Black Friday each year are certainly one reason. Getting good products for a low price is enough to drive most Americans out of the home to, quite literally, risk their lives in search of a 42-inch television. The pure thrill of spending massive amounts of money in a single month brings a giddy rush of emotion to anybody with money in his or her pocket. If cash is flying out the window anyway, what’s an extra buck or two to the Salvation Army?
Others embrace the giving season through a religious calling around the holidays. Many Americans celebrate Christmas as the birth of the Christian Messiah Jesus, and as a sign of love for one another, they give as the three wise men gave to Christ. To show love for one another, people shower each other with gifts and celebrate the coming of Jesus.
There is also a slightly different kind of giving. Not just the giving of gifts to friends and family but a giving that opens wallets, pantries, schedules and hearts to those who need it.
The kindness that Americans show this time of year is truly remarkable. For example, the Salvation Army’s Red Kettle campaign raised $118 million last holiday season. That’s a whole lot of money in coins and $1 bills to be dropped into little red buckets in a month.
The only problem with this outpour of kindness is that it only happens during this time of year.
Maybe some families had to work all year to have the money they have around Christmas, and that’s the only time of year they have to donate due to financial restrictions. Or maybe people are so busy working all the time that they just don’t have the availability until the national holidays free up a portion of their week to work for the homeless.
Religion is a likely underlying factor for some people to participate in various philanthropic activities held during the holiday season. Perhaps it’s the simple atmosphere of the holiday season that motivates people, and during the rest of the year, they’re just not motivated to indulge in the giving spirit.
Though it is unrealistic, imagine the kind of world we might live in should everybody maintain the holiday attitudes the other 11 months of the year. Granted, folks would probably start to resent the bell ringers outside of big box stores by the time April came around. But the common enthusiasm for volunteer work for the poor, homeless and needy, year-round could do wonders for our society.
Imagine if people gave a little more year-round instead of just December. If everybody gave his or her change or an extra dollar bill all the time, maybe the $118 million could be $1 billion. There’s no telling how much could be accomplished if the efforts given by the everyman during December were multiplied by 12 each year.
The charity and humanity shown by millions of people across the country during this festive time of year is wonderful, but the fact that it takes a holiday season to draw it out of everybody’s conscience is unfortunate. The holiday season is a model for what society should strive to be all the time. Why just December? Let’s carry these altruistic tendencies into January, Spring, Summer, Fall and into the next holiday season. It should become a habit rather than an occasion.
— Oliver Casey is a junior in enterprise management. He can be reached at [email protected].
