When Did Christmas Become Sexy?

Yesterday I went to my local CVS to purchase some gifts.  My huz and I went with two other couples to see  Gold, No Sense, and Brrrrrrr...., a dinner theater presentation by Seasons Dinner Theater.  We have seen their Christmas plays/musicals for several years in a row now, and we are always blessed by the message as well as the company.  I like to give a little gift bag with something cute or yummy in it to each of the couples as a way to say Merry Christmas!  I love to give gifts, so this is a great time for me!

When I bolted into CVS, I went directly to the seasonal aisle which is filled with seasonal treats, tins, and candles.  I decided against candles this year as I think that was the gift last year.  I started glancing up and down the shelves, and something caught my eye - not as a gift but as a mind-racing think.

The Christmas tin filled with M&Ms would be a great present...except for the sexy green M&M on the front with her Santa hat and hooker boots!!!  And the mind race began: when did Christmas become sexy?

I know that sex sells.  Products directly related to romance - perfume, diamonds, lingerie, and the like - would be stupid to avoid the sex appeal.  Beer commercials would hardly be beer commercials without a little sex appeal, and with 85% of beer drinkers being men, who are visual beings, who could blame the advertising agencies, really...

But then we have the products that do not seem to have much direct correlation to romance or sexuality.  Thin, beautiful ladies sitting on cars sells cars.  Sex even sells Coca-Cola, my favorite soft drink as the advertisement to the left shows (a New Zealand advertisement but not the only Coca-Cola girl in a swimsuit!).

But Christmas?

Well - if sex sells, Christmas apparently sells better with a little sex appeal thrown in.

I love the music on Mariah Carey's Christmas CD; I would have bought the CD with or without the cover art to the left.  It would be fun to do a study to find out if that is true of the rest of America, though.  Does the impressive number of sales of this CD have more to do with the playlist (Silent Night, Oh Holy Night, Joy to the World, Jesus Oh What a Wonderful Child, and more...yours for only$4.38 on Amazon.com) or more to with the fact that Mariah is gorgeous and wearing a suggestive Santa Claus outfit on the cover?

 

We are currently in the season of Advent, a time in the church calendar when we wait and prepare to celebrate the coming of the Christ child who would, as a friend's blog shares, answer our grief with hope in the form of a person.  How did this time get hijacked by commercialization and advertising that now fill our minds with sexy Christmas images?  This time of waiting, expectation, and hope is not to be filled with sexy women or even "female" M&Ms (by the way, I had a lesson in M&M gender from my son this morning...a great time!) clad in Santa outfits.

 

I am not so naive as to think that changing culture is easy or quick, but something should be done.  I did not buy the M&Ms; is that a start?