Christmas has always been a time of excess

The frenzy of Christmas and New Year shopping is inevitable at this time of year. In December, we usually succumb to the colorful and glittering displays of a cheerful and good world of which we certainly want to be a part. It is estimated that we will spend 11.5 billion kuna this December, which is half a billion more than in previous years, but still less than the record year of 2008 when we spent 12.5 billion kuna in December.

It is good that recovery is taking place, but there will be those who raise the question of superficiality and consumer behavior at the expense of the true values that should be highlighted during one of the greatest Catholic holidays. However, perhaps not everything is as it seems; perhaps things are set just as they should be.

– Religiously, Christmas is a holiday of birth. Traditionally, birth is celebrated, it is honored. Celebration is always a kind of ‘extreme’ behavior or a deviation from the standard everyday life. In the celebration of Christmas, this deviation from the standard everyday life is traditionally linked to more intense consumption, colloquially speaking, a rich feast. Thus, traditionally, the Christmas season is a time of celebration, and accordingly, people’s behavior during this time is deviated from the ‘everyday’, ‘normal’, which is also reflected in increased consumption. This again means that the consumerism of modern Christmas is something that essentially arises from traditional Christmas, something that is largely based on traditional Christmas – asserts Ivan Burić, an assistant professor at the Croatian Studies.

Unnecessary moral panic

Therefore, for him, the moral panic that the media has been raising for several years about ‘Christmas consumer madness’ is fundamentally a wrong perspective on things. Namely, even in traditional communities, Christmas consumption, in relation to the standard, is ‘extreme’. Christmas has historically been a ‘time of excess’, said Burić, only there was little of everything, so it was not noticeable. In modern consumer societies, Christmas consumption is a typical example of ‘compensatory consumption’. Also, consumer societies, such as Croatian society, are characterized not only by an abundance of supply but also by a high degree of individualization of life.

– Individualization implies that the connections between us and the people we hold dear weaken. We socialize less with others, have less time for them, are often in a rush, turned towards ourselves and our problems. Through compensatory consumption, buying gifts for others, we try to ‘cleanse our conscience’. It is a substitute for a life driven by individual aspirations, in which connections with others often break down. Through Christmas consumption, gifts, we symbolically want to at least slightly heal the wounds that arise due to the increasingly intense tearing of ties with others. Retailers and marketing experts know this very well and use Christmas time for this – explains Burić.

Consumption – a little good, a little bad

What drives us to buy and spend, he adds, is a crucial feature of the modern economic system – mass production. The consumer society is the other face of the modern economic system that mass-produces consumer goods. Thus, without mass consumption, there is no mass production. Very quickly after the crowds in shopping centers disappear, the conveyor belts in factories would also stop, emphasizes Burić. Therefore, the consumer society is a society in which institutions that promote consumption dominate: allocative resources – shopping centers, financial institutions – banks with their credit cards and consumer loans, and the marketing system – creates desire for products. Each of these three systems functions within the production system.

– Consumerism is functional for the economy. If we stopped spending, the economy of societies in the Western civilizational circle, as well as many others, would simply collapse. How many times in recent months have we heard that GDP is rising, among other things, due to increased consumer spending. There you have it! On one hand, increased consumption is something good, and on the other hand, we accuse people of being thoughtless, gullible, naive because they succumb to the charms of false needs of consumerism – notes Burić.

People do not hibernate like bears

In consumption, he believes, people generally behave in accordance with the size of the budget they have at their disposal and based on how they assess the situation in the near future. Now we are obviously more optimistic about the future and have a bit more money than a year or two ago, so consumption will therefore increase somewhat compared to last year. Burić recognizes that this corresponds with some of the basic tenets of Milton Friedman’s permanent income theory. For Burić, consumer behavior is thus aligned with macroeconomic movements in Croatian society.

Psychologist Ivan Modrušan emphasizes that in our culture, as well as in others, there are a number of customs, one of which is mutual gifting. Such behavior is positive because we want to please, but we often fall into perfectionism, so it is actually a lack of self-control on one side and social connectivity on the other. We want to show that we care for others, he emphasizes, which is a natural need and the meaning of life, although it would be better if we were always good to each other, not just occasionally for the holidays. At the same time, the end of the year has been for centuries a time when we do not go to the fields, the work is done, and then we can dedicate ourselves to each other. We do not hibernate like bears, says Modrušan, we want to socialize and make quality use of our time.

Under the watch of elites

– Madonna sang long ago that she is a Material Girl and that we live in a material world. People succumb to shopping because we are primarily material beings who are satisfied when we possess objects. I myself recently bought an armchair that I had been thinking about for several years. I finally did it, and I feel good looking at it in my office. However, difficulties arise when shopaholics do not care about the objects at all, but only about the act of buying. We live in a consumer society that is monitored by elites; we respond to them, they have the money, and thus they can more easily control us. It would be better if we were humane, not material, but it is not so – believes Modrušan.

More money will be spent this Christmas and New Year, Modrušan also recognizes as a trend led by elites. The amount of money is unpredictable, he explains, and at one moment it is declared that there is money and goods, only to be declared a recession at another. In doing so, we do not have real data, and good times constantly alternate with bad ones.

Positive changes

Consumption is recovering, but the amount of income and consumer optimism, although prices are lower and sales stronger, are not and will not soon reach the level of 2008, estimates Drago Munjiza, a consultant and entrepreneur. He believes that consumers will indulge themselves after having restrained themselves for several years; even part of the consumption from abroad will remain in Croatia because shopping centers offer great sales, and cities excellently organize Advent. Munjiza also does not forget that retailers now have fiscal cash registers, which were not present in 2008, and that the return of part of the overpaid funds to debtors in Swiss francs will positively reflect on turnover because these are not small amounts.

– The situation in Europe and Croatia is at a sociopolitical level difficult and ambiguous like never before, and the depressive state negatively affects consumption. And Pope Francis’s statement that Europe is at war will now have a certain impact on the behavior of part of the consumers, as well as the scenes of barbed wire at the borders. Christmas is an opportunity for a different approach to family, friends, and partners, even if only for a short time. After all, all civilizations have similar periods – stated Munjiza.