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Commercialization of Religious Holidays
I don't particularly like the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus.
Now before you start going, "Why don't you love the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus? Everyone loves them! The bunny's all fluffy and cute and Santa Claus brings presents! How can you not like presents and candy?" just wait a second and hear me out. It's not so much that I dislike their presence in the holidays; it's the fact that they have become the focus of the holidays themselves. They have become the symbols for an increasingly commercialized version of these holidays. Christmas and Easter are religious holidays - they should have a religious focus!
As for those atheists/agnostics/people who like to bitch to Christians about whatever are about to chime in, "But storiteller, Christmas is only placed in the wintertime because of the winter solstice! And Easter is based around the spring fertility festivals! So it's really not about Christianity at all - you're just celebrating ancient rituals!" again, I say, shush and listen. Yes, I know perfectly well that these holidays do match up with said ancient rituals. However (and this is a big however), that's not what they are about! Christmas was placed then not to ride on the popularity of the pagan ritual, but to overshadow it. Easter is in the spring because of when the Jewish holiday of Passover falls.
Now that I've silenced any objections (you, over in the corner there with your hand up - save the questions until the end), I'm going to make my point. Christmas and Easter have turned into holidays everyone can celebrate. They've done so by being drained of their religion, commercialized and homogenized. They've become celebrations of presents and candy. Now, celebrating Christmas is not about being thankful for God becoming man, but about who gets the most presents and can get the best deals on Black Friday and the day after Christmas. It's all about shopping and greed and attempting to ignore Salvation Army Santas. I'm not against getting presents, just that they overshadow the real meaning. And decorations - don't forget the decorations. For a lot of people, I think the most religious things they see at Christmas are the Mary-on-A-Half-Shell and plastic Jesus decorations on people's lawns. (My family opts for the tasteful candles in the window look.)
As for Easter, it's on its way to becoming Christmas with the addition of egads of sugar. I bet most kids (and a whole lot of adults) don't think of Jesus when they think of Easter - they think of the Easter Bunny. But dammit, that's not what the holiday is all about! For Christians, Easter is a celebration of the ultimate sacrifice, the ultimate price that God paid for us, eternal grace and saving love. It's about Jesus dying on the cross for us. It's not about a giant rabbit.
I understand that little kids don't really understand the meanings of religious holidays, especially Easter. But if you are Christian, you are responsible for at least introducing those ideas to them, rather than just telling them, "Look, it's the Easter Bunny!" while telling yourself that you'll get around to explaining it to them one day when they're older. (If you're not Christian, why are you celebrating Easter? It just seems silly to celebrate something you don't believe in. But that's really not what I'm complaining about. Same with the people who only go to church on Easter and Christmas, but that's another rant altogether.)
Likewise, I'm not saying that atheists or agnostics shouldn't celebrate holidays. Everyone has the right to gather with his or her family and exchange presents and be together. Honestly, I wouldn't have as much of an issue with it if that were what the focus of the holidays was. Yes, it's not the religious focus, but at least it would be about loving people, it would be about the family. But to take a day that many consider sacred and make into an excuse to sell a lot of cheap plastic crap, that's just wrong. It's even more wrong that so many people buy into it, and become obsessed with it.
So what could fix this problem? Would creating a holiday strictly based on commercialism solve it? In fact, I rather like the idea of The Simpsons' invented "Love Day." Nah, that would just be yet another reason for people to feel guilty for not buying their significant others and/or family members substantial-enough gifts. So you (yes, that includes you in the back there with their hand still raised), think about that. I have Easter candy to eat.
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