The last three months of the year — October, November, and December — are undoubtedly my favorite. Time with family, delicious foods, changing leaves, and snowfall are just a few of the things that make this time of year so special to me and many others. Thanksgiving, in particular, is a beloved holiday among many people. 91% of Americans celebrate Thanksgiving across major demographics like race, age, years living in the United States, and others.
I never took much time to think about Thanksgiving or some of my other favorite holidays outside of the context of spending time with loved ones to reflect, show gratitude, and practice my faith. That was, however, until I took a class during the second semester of my freshman year at university. It was an international relations class focused on how everyday products and practices are a result of and perpetuate global dynamics.
In one unit, we were tasked with exploring various national holidays and how they reflect consumerism and shifts in public values and behaviors. Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, Labor Day, Father’s Day, and nearly every other holiday our nation (and others) celebrates 1) mold our sense of national identity and 2) perpetuate capitalist practices. How is this, you might ask?
1. National Identity
Holidays create opportunities for people to make traditions, keep memories of the past alive, and strengthen social ties. National and state holidays often commemorate historical events, figures, heritage, and/or sacrifice. These holidays therefore hold the power to unite people together under a common narrative where we can establish shared values. These values often consist of freedom, independence, unity, democracy, and service amongst others. Ceremonies, speeches, gatherings, and more remind us of these values. In turn, these values and shared experiences can inspire feelings of pride, solidarity, and belonging, which can, at least momentarily, minimize division and angst.
Holidays bring people together in more than just one way. Families and loved ones can pass down stories and traditions with one another on these occasions, creating stronger emotional attachments between people and their nation. I can recall stories my nana shared with me about her family’s Christmas celebrations during her childhood. Having recently immigrated to the United States from Sicily, Christmas and other holidays were some of the few days where she felt the stress and struggle her immigrant family faced on a day-to-day basis melt away. This story weaved my nana’s memory into national memory, inspiring a sense of patriotism in me as well as a greater love for Christmas.
2. Perpetuating Capitalism
As time has passed, holidays and national identity have become increasingly commodified. Holidays that have political, religious, and cultural significance, like Valentine’s Day and Easter, are now tied to gift-giving expectations, decorations, clothing, entertainment, and more. Symbols associated with these holidays such as pumpkins, fireworks, and eggs have become products to buy rather than cultural signs to honor.
Advertisers and businesses have ingrained in us the idea that certain products must be purchased to celebrate holidays properly. This includes buying new outfits, decorations for our homes, and hosting elaborate gatherings with a sprawl of food and drinks. In 2023 alone, Americans spent $5.6 billion on Thanksgiving Day across food, gifts, decorations, travel expenses, and more. Holidays, have in part, become a sort of consumer performance.
Corporations and advertisers get away with this partly through emotional manipulation. Central themes to these occasions such as love, family, gratitude, and others are used to drive consumption. Buying gifts has, essentially, become synonymous with showing someone you care for them. Similarly, buying products locally or domestically is made to make consumers feel patriotic. Our emotions have become economic drivers in many ways. Between leveraging emotional themes and capitalizing on seasonal sales cycles to increase profit, holidays help maintain consumerist patterns in our capitalist nation.
These phenomena are particularly applicable to holidays celebrated globally, such as Christmas and Halloween. They are not unique to America and thus are highly economically profitable. Corporations capitalize on this fact by driving global sales, creating universal consumer experiences, and making mass-produced goods for international markets. This reinforces holidays as global consumer events.
None of this is to say that holidays (at any scale) are no longer meaningful, it’s simply to say that they are worth further examination. How can we, as both Americans and global citizens, preserve the values and practices that make holidays special and simultaneously re-evaluate, modify, and, in some cases, discard behaviors that feed into problematic consumerism and the erasure of cultural meaning?
There is no simple answer to this thought-provoking and complicated question. Many of the aspects I have come to adore and associate with the holidays include gift-buying, cooking elaborate meals, and decorating my home. While perhaps in a perfect world I could leave these traditions behind, that is neither realistic nor should it be necessary. Perhaps what this means moving forward is that I recycle decorations instead of buying new ones nearly every year or only buy one dessert instead of two. There are countless ways to build national identity and preserve values and traditions within reason. I implore you to think of the ways you and your family could accomplish the same.