What Can a Satire from the 1950s Tell Us About Holiday Commercialism?

[eppur_se_muova]

by Addison Del Mastro | December 10, 2014

Two holiday seasons ago, I wrote about the 1996 film “Jingle All the Way,” a corny Schwarzenegger comedy that pokes fun at the holiday shopping rush and the mayhem that often ensues. I noted that nearly every over-the-top depiction of craziness in the film – including shoppers pepper spraying each other and brawling in the aisles – has since actually occurred.

This year, I’d like to remember a much older and more obscure, yet perhaps more substantive critique of holiday commercialism. It’s an incredibly prescient 1956 short story by the late science fiction writer Frederik Pohl titled “Happy Birthday, Dear Jesus.”

This story is all-but-forgotten, perhaps because science fiction was not considered true literature in those years, or because it simply came too early: with memory of the Depression still looming in people’s minds, few were ready to criticize consumerism. But the story is prophetic to the point of nearly being a description of today’s commercialism, and it deserves a wide reading.

In a humorous segment that sets the story’s tone, the main character, George, recites this brilliant re-imagining of “The Night Before Christmas” in an attempt to impress the family of a young woman he’s trying to court (I’ve copied only part of it):

So much for the bedroom, so much for the bath,
So much for the kitchen, too little by half!
Come Westinghouse, Philco! Come Hotpoint, G.E.!
Come Sunbeam! Come Mixmaster! Come to the Tree!

And out of the shops, how they spring with a clatter,
The gifts and appliances words cannot flatter!
The robot dishwasher, the new Frigidaire,
The doll with the didy and curlable hair!
The electrified hairbrush, the black lingerie,
The full-color stereoscopic TV!
Come, Credit Department! Come, Personal Loan!
Come, Mortgage, come Christmas Club –”

The poem ends when the woman’s family has had enough.
***
more: https://newdream.org/blog/satire-holiday-commercialism


Definitely not "all-but-forgotten" among SF fans. Pohl truly deserved his title of Grand Master.



ETA: Available from the Internet Archive, if you have an account:
https://archive.org/details/christmasonganym0000unse/page/n7/mode/2up
https://archive.org/details/tofollowstarnine00carr/page/n7/mode/2up

[pfitz59]

1. Pohl's Law is "Nothing is so good that somebody, somewhere will not hate it"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederik_Pohl

Frederik George Pohl Jr. (/poʊl/; November 26, 1919 – September 2, 2013) was an American science-fiction writer, editor, and fan, with a career spanning nearly 75 years—from his first published work, the 1937 poem "Elegy to a Dead Satellite: Luna", to the 2011 novel All the Lives He Led.[1]

[RedWhiteBlueIsRacist]

3. This was a great read (& link).

Last edited Thu Dec 19, 2024, 10:22 AM - Edit history (1)

Being non-religious since the 1980s, my wife and I have been Xmas free for over 35 years. To us, this whole Xmas thing has reached bizarre proportions, and the Holiday comes off as extremely insincere. It even crops up in July now, as Xmas-in-July!

People assume everyone is a Christian, and must be told to have a Merry Christmas. They seemed shell-shocked if we tell them we're not Christians, and don't celebrate Xmas. "Have you got your Xmas shopping done yet?" is often asked. LOL, nope!

Thanks for the post and the link to the article.

[iscooterliberally]

4. They have full-color stereoscopic TVs?!

I gotta get me one of those!

[justaprogressive]

5. My 2nd most favorite Pohl short story!

"The Midas Plague" copyright © 1954 by Galaxy Publishing Corp. for Galaxy Magazine,
April 1954.

Automation has eliminated the need for most people to work and also provided more goods that people need. So everyone is forced to consume beyond their needs. and most people are unemployed...

Man was prescient.