Future Claus Decades From Now, What Will Christmas Be Like?

Each year, it’s the same.

The arrival of the Christmas season is accompanied by a tidal wave of nostalgia. And once again, we read and hear about how great the yule used to be.

Fine. Maybe it was. Warm and fuzzy childhood memories are tough to beat. There’s a reason we cherish them.

But December conversations seldom if ever focus on an equally interesting theme.

What will Christmas be like in the future?

Imagine.

Will Christmas be even more commercial? Will those who are openly mindful of the holiday’s religious underpinnings be regarded as members of an odd cult?

Or has the “Xmas Blowout Sale” exploitation of the season peaked and we are, in fact, about to witness a widespread back-to-basics cultural backlash?

Your guess is as good as anyone’s.

“What I hope is that it doesn’t become a non-event,” said Jack White, a Spokane advertising executive. “In 20 years, will it be a wonderful life or will it be a cyber life?”

You make the call.

White hopes the traditional emphasis on friends and family getting together to celebrate the season won’t be lost.

But Ron Large, a member of the Religious Studies faculty at Gonzaga University, doubts that Christmas will become something that would be unrecognizable to Americans today. In fact, he guesses that our awareness of incremental changes - he mentioned Christmas cards being sent to your computer instead of your mailbox - will simply reinforce many people’s commitment to retain unaltered other holiday traditions. “Christmas is just so embedded in our culture,” he said.

Still, some new twists are almost inevitable.

John Mager, a consumer behavior specialist who teaches marketing at Eastern Washington University, thinks it’s possible that the busy sidewalks Christmas vibe will be replaced by everybody-does-it online gift-shopping.

Of course, there are no right or wrong answers when it comes to speculation.

Maybe, a few decades from now, virtual reality software programs will allow people to step into their favorite Christmas movies and interact with the films’ characters.

“Pssst … Uncle Billy, you left the money in the newspaper … better get it before Mr. Potter grabs it.”

Perhaps futuristic FDA-approved hallucinogens (fun for the whole family) will produce specific Dec. 24 sugar-plums dreams. You know, something made-to-order based on a story-line of your choosing.

“I’d like to dream that Santa sends the models from the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue to tell me on Christmas Eve that I have to fill in for him because he’s got a wicked cold.”

“Yes, we have that in stock.”

Maybe meteorological manipulation in the year 2021 will allow for Christmas Day just-like-clockwork snowfalls, even in places such as Phoenix or San Antonio.

Maybe a new generation of “smart” credit cards will have voices. “Don’t do it, Annie. You can’t afford this.”

Maybe there will be huge holographic creches, water-fueled minivans that can fly to posh resorts at the North Pole, robotic reindeer that can change a baby’s diapers, everyone wearing poinsettias on their heads, and the elderly - the only people left in society who can read text from books - will be much in demand for holiday storytime sessions.

Maybe, thanks to amazing advances in canine nutrition, all dogs will be able to bark out “Jingle Bells.”

Maybe gift-giving will fall out of fashion and, instead, people will focus on simple acts of sharing such as inviting strangers into their homes for visits.

Maybe more people will realize Advent is not a sport utility vehicle.

Maybe more people will remember that non-Christians have a right to keep the holiday at arm’s length.

In his more optimistic moments, Al Brislain, director of the Spokane Food Bank, thinks that the Christmas season 25 years from now will find this area to be a place where the gap between society’s haves and have-nots will have been dramatically reduced.

“There are all these wonderful plans out there,” he said. “And if they achieve half of what they are talking about, this is going to be a great place to live. But it’s going to take a lot of George Baileys to make that happen here,” he added, alluding to the community-minded character in “It’s a Wonderful Life.”

Spokane Christmas ornament designer Beth Merck suspects that, in the future, the holiday season will find many Americans doing precisely what they do today. “I see people yearning to re-establish family traditions or to start traditions of their own,” she said. “I think people want to have something to pass along to their children.”

Randy Childress, who operates a bed and breakfast in Murray, Idaho, thinks that a few decades from now Christmas will have become more focused on personal sharing and have less to do with out-of-control spending. And he thinks the story of the birth of Jesus will assume a higher profile in the celebration.

Does he really believe that, he was asked.

“Well,” he said, “I think it has as much chance of happening as anything.”

That’s the thing about the future. We can forecast and predict all we want. But only time will tell.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Staff illustration by Charles Waltmire