ReligionLink

Traditions of holiday gift-giving in the United States have grown more complicated and more stressful. What to give? To whom? How much? When? There are questions of money and meaning, of different faiths and different cultures.

November and December include Christmas (Dec. 25), Ramadan’s Eid al-Fitr (timed to the sighting of the new moon, around Nov. 25), Hanukkah (Dec. 19-27) and Kwanzaa (Dec. 26-Jan. 1), which all have distinct gift traditions.

Anthropologists, sociologists, ethicists, religion scholars, clergy and gift-givers of all kinds think about how gifts reflect the way Americans’ values are changing and blending. Many criticize commercialization and call for honoring holidays’ sacred origins. Some call for simplicity. Meanwhile, neighbors, friends, families and co-workers stress over how and what to give to the diversity of people in their lives.

Why it Matters

Gift-giving is a meaningful practice in all cultures and most religions. It is also the subject of new tensions and questions as a result of commercialism, economic pressures and America’s increasing mix of faith and ethnic traditions. A growing movement against commercialism is changing how some families approach presents.

Questions for reporters

• How are people of faith trying to keep holidays centered on their religious origins?

• Are Jews and Muslims addressing the commercialization of Hanukkah and Ramadan?

• Find out how families that include different faiths and cultures handle gift-giving.

• How are immigrants adopting American ways while suffusing them with traditions from their homelands?

• What advice do local religious leaders have for well-meaning friends and neighbors who want to bridge these religious differences with respect and sensitivity?

• What ethical dilemmas do shoppers say they face?

• How do shoppers say the economy is affecting gift-giving this year?

• Are any organizations or people participating in “alternate gift” programs in which gifts are given to charity in a loved one’s name?

• What efforts exist in your community to counter commercialism?

 

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National sources

• Leigh Eric Schmidt, professor of religion at Princeton University in New Jersey, wrote Consumer Rites: The Buying and Selling of American Holidays (Princeton University Press, 1997). He says the commercialization of religious holidays has roots dating back to the 1800s, when American holiday bazaars combined the holy and the profane. Contact 609-258-5285, leschmid@princeton.edu.

• Mark Osteen is editor of The Question of the Gift: Essays Across Disciplines (Routledge, 2002). The book examines gift-giving as a social phenomenon and includes essays on sociology, anthropology, economics and literature. He is professor of English and director of the film studies program at Loyola College in Baltimore, Md. Contact 410-617-2363, mosteen@loyola.edu.

• Lewis Hyde, recipient of a 1991 MacArthur Foundation “genius” award, is the author of The Gift: Imagination and the Erotic Life of Property (Vintage Books, 1983), an inquiry into the situation of creative artists in a commercial society. Hyde, the Richard L. Thomas professor of creative writing in the English department at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio, can talk about the nature of gifts and gift-giving. Contact 740-427-5343.

CHRISTIAN

• Bill McKibben is author of Hundred Dollar Holiday: The Case For A More Joyful Christmas (Simon & Schuster, 1998) and has participated in the interdenominational campaign called “Whose Birthday Is It, Anyway?” sponsored by the Sioux City, Iowa-based Alternatives for Simple Living. The campaign encourages churches and families to simplify their holiday celebration by cutting consumerism and focusing on the religious significance of Christmas. Read an article by McKibben about simplifying Christmas. Contact him in Middlebury, Vt., at 802-443-3489.

• Stephen H. Webb is author of The Gifting God: A Trinitarian Ethics of Excess (Oxford University Press, 1996), which examines generosity, gift giving and exchange in modern culture. He is also professor of religion and philosophy at Wabash College in Crawfordsville, Ind. Contact 765-361-6264, webbs@wabash.edu.

JEWISH

• Scholar and commentator David Wolpe, rabbi of Sinai Temple in Los Angeles, says Hanukkah gifts represent the fact that the unexpected victory of the Maccabees over the Syrians was a gift - which is, ideally, something wondrous produced from nowhere. Contact 310-481-3242, DWolpe@aol.com.

• Rabbi Shimon Apisdorf, author of Chanukah: Eight Nights of Light, Eight Gifts for the Soul (Leviathan Press, 1997), can discuss the history and practice of gift-giving at Hanukkah. Contact him in Baltimore at 410-502-1020.

MUSLIM

• John L. Esposito, professor of religion and international affairs and of Islamic studies at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., can discuss the role, ethics and spiritual tradition of gifts in Islam. Contact 202-687-8375, jle2@georgetown.edu.

• R. Kevin Jacques, professor of religious studies at Indiana University in Bloomington, specializes in Islam and can discuss the role of gifts in Muslim tradition and culture. Small presents and food gifts traditionally are exchanged and gifts are made to charity at Eid al-Fitr, the feast day marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan. Contact 812-855-6907.

KWANZAA EXPERTS

• Quinton Dixie, assistant professor of philosophy at Indiana University at Fort Wayne, is a specialist in African-American religious history and can describe the significance of gifts at Kwanzaa. Contact 260-481-5724.

• Maulana Karenga, California State University-Long Beach professor of African-American history, created Kwanzaa in Los Angeles in 1966. It is celebrated yearly between Dec. 26 and Jan. 1. Contact 562-985-4624.

ASIAN RELIGIONS

• David L. Haberman, professor of Hinduism, is chairman of the religious studies department at Indiana University in Bloomington. He studies South Asian religious traditions, ritual theory and practice and their contemporary implications, and he also is interested in American Indian religions in the West and Southwest. Contact 812-855-8894.

• Robert F. Campany, associate professor of religion at Indiana University at Bloomington, specializes in Asian religions, particularly Taoism and Buddhism, and can talk about their gift traditions. Contact 812-855-3531.

AMERICAN INDIAN

• Curtis M. Hinsley Jr., chairman of the history department and professor in the applied indigenous studies department at Northern Arizona University, can talk about American Indian gift traditions. Contact 928-523-8788 or 928-523-1378.

SHOPPING ALTERNATIVES

• The 59-year-old Heifer International publishes a gift catalog. Donors give farm animals to poor people in other countries in the name of a family member or friend. The family receiving the animal agrees to “pass on the gift” by donating an offspring of their animal to another family in need. The charity, based in Little Rock, Ark., was begun in the late 1930s by an Indiana farmer. The organization’s budget, which comes mostly from donations, has grown from $17 million in 1999 to $56 million in this fiscal year. Up to 40 percent of that comes in between November and January. Resistance to alternative giving - the worry that a giver will seem cheap or odd - is melting, and the practice is becoming acceptable, especially since 9/11, says Mike Matchett, Heifer marketing director. From unsolicited emails, Matchett says, he gathers that people are becoming more reflective about what it means to give and that many entire families are, apart from purchasing gifts for children, turning exclusively to charitable holiday gifts. Contact 501-907-2690, mike.matchett@heifer.org.

• Buy Nothing Christmas (”Now you can do your Christmas shopping in no time at all”) began three years ago with a full-page ad in Canadian Mennonite magazine, a small local organizing committee in the Vancouver, B.C., Canada, area and a modest web presence. The initiative encourages simple, thoughtful and handmade gifts to counter the holiday shopping extravaganza. In 2002, the Christmas issue of Adbusters magazine (where founder Aiden Enns was working) gave it a full-page plug, and web interest increased. Its current mailing list is 1,000, two-thirds of whom are Americans. Enns says that, as a Christian, he is appalled by some churches’ lack of concern for the rampant level of consumption at Christmastime. Contact Enns or his spouse and co-organizer, Karen Schlichting, at 204-772-9610, aiden@mts.net.

• World Vision, the 33-year-old Christian humanitarian organization, has a catalog of Christmas gift donations. Categories include animals, care for orphans and widows affected by HIV/AIDS, help for children with disabilities, clean water, early childhood care, education and, in the United States, food, clothing and training for people in need. World Vision says it works to help change lives of the poorest people in nearly 100 countries, including the United States, helping everyone regardless of religion, gender, race or ethnicity. Contact Karen Kartes, 253-815-2163 or 206-351-4315 (cell), kkartes@worldvision.org.

Background

POLLS

• An Oct. 21, 2003 survey by the National Retail Federation http://www.nrf.com found that Americans, on average, plan to spend $671.89 in the 2003 holiday season, up from 2002 when consumers spent an average of $648.85. The survey found that 92.2 percent of consumers plan to celebrate Christmas, 5.8 percent will celebrate Hanukkah, and 1.6 percent will celebrate Kwanzaa.

• Other polls asking Americans about their holiday spending generally start appearing in mid- to late-November, so watch for polls about the 2003 season. In 2002, a Gallup poll that found that Americans planned to spend $51 less on holiday gifts (read a Nov. 29, 2002, article in the St. Louis Business Journal), and Center for the New American Dream published a poll that found that more than half of Americans believed that spending less money on Christmas gifts would help them focus on “the true meaning” of the holidays.

CHRISTMAS GIFTS

• Read The History Channel’s history of Christmas.

• Read Adam Wiemers’ essay on the origins of Christmas gifts.

• Read a brief history of Christmas gifts at the site 4 Specialty Gifts.

• Read an article about evangelicals and the cultural aspects of gift-giving in the October 1994 Journal of Applied Missiology by Ed Mathews of Abilene Christian University.

• The Neiman Marcus Christmas catalog, which includes a $12.7 million Learjet, a luxury ice-fishing house, and a custom-designed mermaid suit, is at the extreme end of the material culture. Contact public relations representatives Ginger Reeder, 972-969-3213.

• Bill Egan devotes himself to the study of Christmas worldwide. His web site is about history and customs of the holiday. Egan says that, in the early 18th century, gifts were purchased for children and servants. Adult gift-exchanges became common later. The Industrial Revolution and changing attitudes in the 19th century accelerated gift-giving and commercialization of the holiday. During this era it was thought intolerable that poor children should be deprived of gifts and charities arose to remedy the situation. Contact Egan at christmashistorian@yahoo.com.

 

HANUKKAH ‘GELT’

• Read about the history of Hanukkah the story at the Virtual Chanukah site.

• Read Torah.org’s explanation of the tradition of Hannukah gifts, stressing that rewards are appropriate for Torah study since the Syrians had forbidden the study of Torah.

• Most Jews say the importance of Hanukkah has been inflated by its proximity to Christmas. It is a historical holiday, not a religious one. Hanukkah gifts traditionally were money, or gelt, small rewards to children for studying and cherishing Jewish customs and laws. The practice probably originated in the Middle Ages and children saved the money for some worthy purpose, for example to buy a ritual object or a sacred book, says s David Wolpe, rabbi of Sinai Temple in Los Angeles. The larger idea of gifts at Hanukkah, Wolpe says, is that the completely unexpected victory of the Maccabees over the Syrians was a gift - which is, ideally, something wondrous produced from nowhere.

• Read five explanations for the tradition of Hanukkah gifts at the Jewish Celebrations site.

EID al-FITR GIFTS

• Gift-giving is part of the Eid al-Fitr celebration that ends the Muslim holy month of Ramandan. SoundVision.com offers background on the Eid celebration and an essay on gift-giving. This year Eid, which is timed to the sighting of the new moon, is expected to fall around Nov. 25.

• One of the most important features of Ramadan is the zakaat, the giving of charity. The University of Southern California’s Muslim Student Association offers an explanation on the importance of giving alms at this time.

• Holidays.net includes Ramadan on the Net with information about Ramadan history and traditions.

• The president of the Islamic Society of North American issued a Fatwa telling Muslims not to adopt the traditions of Christmas.

• An Internet search will turn up dozens of sites that sell Ramadan gifts.

KWANZAA ‘ZAWZADI’

• Read a discussion of Kwanzaa history, traditions and gifts on Blackvoices.com’s Kwanzaa site.

• For more background, see a 2002 ReligionLink tip on Kwanzaa titled “Religion creeps into Kwanzaa, sparking debate.”

• For more on gifts and Kwanzaa traditions, see the Kwanzaa area of Twilightbridge.com.

DIWALI

• At Diwali, the five-day Hindu festival that began on Oct. 25 this year, relatives and friends exchange food gifts, and at weddings, the families of bride and bridegroom exchange gifts. Otherwise, gift exchange isn’t central to mainstream Hindu tradition.

• Read a story, posted at Beliefnet.com, about how Hindus in America celebrate Diwali.

• Read a column about Diwali gift-giving by author Arthur Magida, posted at Beliefnet.com.

OTHER BACKGROUND

• Author Stephen King, in a commencement address to the Vassar College Class of 2001, said one really gives a gift to improve one’s self. Read excerpts at Beliefnet.com.

 

Regional sources

IN THE NORTHEAST

• Robert Orsi, Charles Warren Professor of the History of Religion in America at Harvard Divinity School in Massachusetts, can discuss material culture and the imaginative world of religion. He has studied how children lived the Catholic faith in the late 19th and through the 20th centuries. Contact: 617-495-5761.

• Sergei Kan chairs the Dartmouth College Department of Anthropology in New Hampshire and can talk about about traditions of gift-giving. Contact 603-646-3256.

• Kirk Hanson is executive director of the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University in California. He can talk about ethics and gift-giving. Contact 408-554-5319.

IN THE EAST

• Historian Leigh Eric Schmidt, professor of religion at Princeton University in New Jersey, is the author of Consumer Rites: The Buying and Selling of American Holidays (Princeton University Press, 1997). Contact leschmid@princeton.edu.

• Jenna Weissman Joselit, visiting professor of American studies and modern Judaic studies at Princeton University, has written extensively about material culture in Jewish tradition. Her book The Wonders of America: Reinventing Jewish Culture, 1880-1950 (Owl Books, 2002) includes a focus on Hanukkah and gift-giving. Contact 212-799-0780, joselit@princeton.edu.

• Dean Foster is a part-time faculty member at the College of New Rochelle and the New School for Social Research, New York City, where he received his M.A. and is a Ph.D. candidate in sociology. He is the president of Dean Foster Associates in New York and has written numerous books about etiquette across cultures. Contact 718-287-9890.

• Stephen N. Dunning, associate professor of religious studies, teaches religion and the search for meaning at the University of Pennsylvania. Contact 215-898-7453.

• Brian Wells, pastor of Second Baptist Church in Asbury Park, N.J., is an Afrocentric scholar who can talk about the theological and cultural aspects of gift-giving. Contact 732-774-5347.

• John Farina is senior fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. He can talk about the ethics of gift-giving. Contact 202-687-1941, jf224@georgetown.edu.

IN THE SOUTHEAST

• Vanessa L. Ochs is an anthropologist of religion who focuses on the study of religion and material culture. At the University of Virginia, she is the Ida and Nathan Kolodiz professor of Jewish studies and associate professor of religious studies. She is interested in how holiday gift-giving is a religious act, although it may not feel like one. Contact 434-924-6722, vlo4n@cms.mail.virginia.edu.

• Theodore Caplow is Commonwealth Professor of Sociology at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. He is editor of The Social Change quarterly report and published an article called “Christmas Gifts and Kin Networks.” Contact 434-924-6518, caplow@virginia.edu.

• Gordon D. Newby, professor of Middle Eastern Studies and co-chairman for West and South Asian Religions at Emory University in Atlanta, can speak about some aspects of gift-giving in Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Contact 404-727-8722 (department), 404-727-2717 (message), gdnewby@LearnLink.Emory.Edu.

• Dell deChant is a religious studies instructor at the University of South Florida in Tampa and author of the book The Sacred Santa: Religious Dimensions of Consumer Culture (Pilgrim Press, 2002). Americans aren’t workaholics, they’re shopaholics who work so they can consume, he says. He calls America’s late capitalist, postmodern culture intensely religious, having elevated consumption to a sacred activity. Contact 813-974-2221 ext. 0576.

• Richard E. Sincere Jr. is president of Arlington Research Group polling in Charlottesville, Va. Read his essay, “The Moral Case for Christmas Commercialism.” Contact 434-245-8426.

• Edward Queen is director of ethics and servant leadership at the Center for Ethics at Emory University in Atlanta. He can talk about ethics and gift-giving. Contact 404-727-1240.

 

IN THE SOUTH

• James Hudnut-Beumler, dean at Vanderbilt University Divinity School in Nashville, Tenn., is the author of Generous Saints: Congregations Rethinking Ethics and Money (Alban Institute, 1999). He can discuss how different religious traditions have thought about money and the religious marketplace and how forgotten portions of religious communities’ pasts can illumine, correct and inspire contemporary practices. Contact 615-343-3960.

• James P. Byrd Jr. is assistant dean and senior lecturer in American religious history at Vanderbilt University Divinity School and the graduate department of religion. Ask him about gift-giving in American religious tradition. Contact 615-343-3976, james.p.byrd@vanderbilt.edu.

• Jan Lukens, consumer management consultant at Mississippi State University’s Extension Service, helps people figure out how to give gifts they can afford and how to structure and plan for gift-giving in a way that alleviates stress at Christmas. Contact 228-388-4710.

IN THE MIDWEST

• Paul Maier, professor of ancient history at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, can discuss the gift-giving tradition at Christmas or other end-of-the-year festivals. He compares secular evidence from the ancient world with the sacred evidence in the Bible. Contact 269-387-4816 (reach him at 11 a.m. daily), maier@wmich.edu.

• Jamsheed Choksy is an adjunct faculty member in the department of Central Eurasian studies at Indiana University in Bloomington. His interests include Zoroastrianism, ancient and modern; Islamic studies; and the study of adaptations by communities from Islamic regions who have settled in Europe and North America. Contact 812-855-8643.jf224@georgetown.edu.

• David Cook is the Arthur Holmes Chair of Faith and Learning at Wheaton College in Illinois and senior faculty fellow with the Center for Applied Christian Ethics there. He can talk about gift-giving, particularly from an evangelical perspective. Contact 630-752-5314.

IN THE SOUTHWEST

• Robin Lovin is the Carey Maguire University Professor of Ethics at Southern Methodist University and can talk about the ethics of gift-giving. Contact 214-768-4134, rlovin@smu.edu.

• Miriam Ortiz y Pino, through her Albuquerque business More Than Organized, helps people get control of their lives and holiday celebrations. She’s all for simplifying winter holiday celebrations. Read a story about the gift-giving philosophy of this former inventory control manager for Crate and Barrel at the site of the Albuquerque Tribune. Contact 505-243-4356.

IN THE WEST/NORTHWEST

• Ramon A. Gutierrez, associate professor of history and ethnic studies at the University of California, San Diego, thinks about gifts and the social obligations and inequalities created through their circulation. These ideas are central in his book, When Jesus Came, the Corn Mothers Went Away: Marriage, Sexuality and Power in New Mexico, 1500-1846 (Stanford University Press, 1991). Gutierrez can discuss the influence of Mexican gift traditions in the United States. Contact 858-534-2136, rgutierrez@ucsd.edu.

• Kendall Webb is founder and executive director of JustGive.org, , a nonprofit organization in Oakland, Calif., whose mission is to connect people with the charities and causes they care about and to increase overall giving. Contact 866-587-8448, kendall@justgive.org.

• Alexandra J. Harmon is an associate professor of American Indian studies at the University of Washington Department. She can describe the gift-based potlatch tradition that characterized much of the native culture in the Pacific Northwest and how that tradition persists in the religious practices - both Christian and indigenous - of native people today. Contact 206-543-7116.

• C.R.D. Halisi chairs the Pan-African studies department at California State University at Los Angeles. He was one of the early leaders behind the Kwanzaa movement. Contact 323-343-2291.

• The Rev. Dominic Briese, director of the Newman Center at the University of Nevada Las Vegas, can talk about how students in this university’s active Interfaith Student Center approach holiday giving. Contact 702-736-0887.