Snow falls lightly outside, candles twinkle in the window, and dinner sits upon the table. You and your family sit down for a Christmas dinner. A tree stands in the corner covered in ornaments. Beneath it rests some presents for each member at the table, ready to be opened after dinner. Love, joy, and holiday spirit is felt by all, and a wonderful meal enjoyed.

Now rewind.

The candles in the window cost $12.99. The tree in the corner came from a farm, cut and sold at the price of $50. The ornaments and lights on the tree are various and altogether the rough cost is around $100. Over $160 dollars spent before the various presents are even taken into account.

Though the true cost is the time spent prepare for this day, people spending entire weeks camping out in front of stores in order to try and get the very best deals before anyone else. People lose time that could be better spent with their friends, family, or perhaps working and making more money than would be saved by waiting for the deals. So what is the true cost of the commercialization of the holidays?

Every year on November 1 the Halloween decorations are taken down, and the decorations for Christmas go up with very few people paying half a mind to Thanksgiving.

No, the true holiday for many sits the day after Thanksgiving, the aptly named Black Friday. A day of deals, commerce, and for many the best opportunity to buy presents for their loved ones. The deals on this day are incredible, but so is the profit. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it’s a great boost for the economy, but when did holidays become about money, profit, and material possessions.

When did people start caring more about money than people’s lives? Almost every year there is a scandal that surrounds some poor soul trampled in the onslaught of shoppers searching for deals. Is this the price that must be paid? Blood? Where did this all begin?

Do not take this the wrong way, I love giving and receiving gifts as much as anyone else, and in all honesty I’m as guilty as many of spending far too much money on my relatives and loved ones. The problem is when people stop caring about the sentiment behind these gifts, the reason they are given, and rather care more about the money that is spent as though that is a measure of feelings.

Love is not monetary, hope is not a diamond that can be dug from the earth, and kindness turns more strangers into friends than money ever could. The more people that turn to money as their source of happiness in this world, the more unhappiness that is bred for others.

It has been quoted that money is the source of all evil in this world, but this is not the case. Humanity is the source of all evil; it is we who breed greed, hate, and corruption. It is we who obsess over the corporations and buy into their commercialization of the holidays, rather than the values upon which they were founded.

The commercialization of Christmas and other holidays has an even darker impact then the unhappiness of humanity, one that could have lasting impacts on the world. Outside snow rests on the ground, before this in earlier months rain fell to the earth.

The rain and snow are harboring a secret, a dark consequence of the commercial lifestyle. Chemical pollution created by mass production becomes acid rain, contributing to the destruction of life and global climate change.

Climate change has become such a hot issue that many a people have flooded the streets to protest oil companies and legislation such as the Keystone XL pipeline. Yet under the radar the electronics and big box production companies pillage the earth for its precious metals and oil. Their products in turn consume energy produced largely by the oil companies climate change protesters attack.

Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and the entirety of the commercial holidays are another way that humanity assists in the destruction of the planet.

Commercial products are by no means the only thing reeking havoc on the earth’s ecosystems and the global temperature, but by taking apart in the annual commercial festivities humanity is certainly not doing here any favors. People are always looking for a good bargain, without taking into account the long term costs of their actions. These long term consequences are far reaching, but not necessarily visible upon purchase.

If you take offense at this, I feel sorry for you, but I don’t apologize. The world is falling into an abyss. Even the days we hold in highest regard are corrupted by dark emotions and hungry greed. As long as humanity is selfish and cares more about the almighty dollar sign than its brothers and sisters, corruption will exist. As long as corruption exists, no person will find peace during the commercial holidays.

Corruption is both a cause and consequence of the lifestyle to which so many are accustomed. This does not mean corruption on a personal level, necessarily, but rather people contribute to the corruption of others and society.

These contributions come through the purchase of products, the pandering to advertisements, or perhaps the occasional campaign donation. It is something humanity has had to deal with since the beginning, those in power using their power to gain more. This began with warfare, and then it became empire and politics, and now it is through wealth and products.

We are a commercial people, people who love to consume material wealth and dispose of it, as though it gives us a sort of power. My only advise comes in the words of the estimable Henry David Thoreau “Our life is frittered away by detail…simplify, simplify.”