Since you’ll likely be busy with family and friends this weekend, let us leave you with this story of Christmas from Richard Shenkman’s Legends, Lies & Cherished Myths of American History:

Until the Civil War Christmas was but scantily observed. Most shockingly, retailers hardly seemed to take notice of the occasion. Historians report that the pages of the New York Tribune in 1841 did not contain a single example of advertising with a Christmas theme. It wasn’t until after the Civil War that retailers began experimenting with special Christmas sales. Once they did, however, it didn’t take long for them to discover the commercial possibilities offered by the holiday. By 1970 December had become the merchants’ single largest selling month of the year.

No matter what you celebrate over the next few days, let us join together to worship our Christmas’s most hallowed savior: Mammon.

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