Holiday shopping is a moral good

At 5:15 p.m. on Christmas Eve, you’ll find me at St. John the Evangelist Roman Catholic Church near 13th and Market Streets. There, cantor T.J. DeLuca’s soul-shaking operatic tenor brings awe and wonder to beloved Christmas hymns, culminating in a soaring recessional of “O Holy Night.”

It’s the highlight of my family’s Advent season — the four weeks of spiritual preparation culminating in the celebration of Christ’s birth. A season that also includes the more poignant and nostalgic aspects of the Philly Christmas I grew up with.

This past Sunday, we took in our annual viewing of A Christmas Carol by the Lantern Theater Co. in Philadelphia. The Sunday prior, we were bopping along to Irving Berlin’s White Christmas at the Bucks County Playhouse. Afterward, we journeyed a few towns over to Yardley where we caught a dazzling light show at Shady Brook Farm, just off I-95.

During this season, you’ll find my family sprawled on the floor of the Center City Macy’s under the Wanamaker Eagle. We gaze in wonder as its famous kinetic light show — featuring illuminated depictions of ballerinas and Christmas trees — whirls over our heads while one of the largest pipe organs on Earth thunders The Nutcracker Suite, just as it did when I was a little girl.

Then it’s a race to the third floor where we’re transported back to Victorian England in the Dickens Village. Then it’s across the street to the lobby of the Ritz-Carlton for our newest tradition: enjoying an oversized hot chocolate brimming with toasted marshmallows.

Our intertwining of secular and spiritual celebration is not complete without the frenetic sprint to get the perfect gift for every person by Christmas morning. I partake in the rampant consumerism of the season, but I don’t understand why so many people see that as a bad thing.

Sure, it can be argued that anything in excess can be corrupting, but must we always be so cranky about it around Christmas? Why can’t we see consumerism at Christmas — and the capitalist system that spawned it — for the moral good that it is?

I am not unaware of the cacophony of critiques on consumerism that bubble up this time of year. In a recent Slate column entitled, “We’ve exported Black Friday to the rest of the world,” writer Isabella Grullón Paz deems such economic behavior excessive, wasteful, and detrimental to everything from the environment to culture.

Missing in anti-consumerism arguments are the good financial tidings and greater economic joy our spending brings to others. Retailers, restaurants, and service providers experience a significant boost in revenue, which translates into increased employment opportunities, higher wages, and improved working conditions.

What’s not joyful about that?

This seasonal pattern is especially true in Philadelphia. Small businesses in the city are a driving force behind our economy. In Philadelphia, approximately 90% of businesses are, by definition, small businesses, meaning they employ fewer than 99 people. I love frequenting the shops along Passyunk Avenue (everyone gets a South Fellini Philly-centric jawn in their stocking) and the other boulevards of commerce in the city and surrounding towns.

Consumer spending on the days between Black Friday and Christmas morning can often determine whether many businesses thrive or fail. During this narrow window last year, holiday spending generated up to 65% of annual revenue for small businesses.

Shopping the big chains is a moral good, too. Those “free” showings of the Macy’s Light Show and Dickens Village require lights, heat, electric — and cheerful staff to guide us through these expensive “free events.”

Despite recent inflation, economic downturns, and market volatility, small businesses anticipate a strong recovery this month. The National Retail Federation forecasted 2023 sales to “reach record levels” during November and December. Some estimates suggest a 42% increase in consumer spending at small businesses this holiday season — further fueling the city’s desperately needed economic recovery.

Moreover, this economic activity benefits people of color in Philadelphia, as one in four businesses in Philadelphia are Black-owned — more than twice the national average.

Corporate and individual charitable donations increase during the holiday season, too, providing much-needed support for nonprofit organizations, assistance programs, and community initiatives. Most nonprofits receive nearly half of their online revenue in the last week of December.

I teach my children this aspect of the holiday, too. We give not just to see joy on the faces of the recipient, but in order to benefit the many people who can now give and receive because we bought something.

Even I can devolve into the Christmas fretting that we’re too focused on material things. But as one of my children reminded me last Christmas, even baby Jesus received gifts: gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

If gift-giving was good enough for the Three Wise Men, then it’s good enough for me.