Remember the Needy After Today

Is Christmas a religious holiday or a commercial one? The way I see it, Christmas has become commercial.

Immediately after Thanksgiving (and sometimes even before), Christmas music starts playing in every possible broadcast media and public place: radio, television, food markets, department stores, restaurants. Beautiful Christmas decorations are everywhere. Toys, clothes and jewelry are featured. Every year, some new item is created to lure people into buying. This is especially true with high-priced children’s toys. Santa Claus is visible on every street corner as well as in markets and department stores. Some collect money for the poor. Television and radio stations, the police and fire departments and hundreds of other organizations collect toys for poor and sick children.

Suddenly, everyone is concerned about the homeless, the sick, the disabled, those on welfare. Christmas meals are cooked for them. Celebrities dish out food. Men, women and children sit quietly at long tables waiting to be served their Christmas meal. I’m sure they are pleased to get these meals and toys. After all, Christmas is the season to care.

Isn’t it wonderful how our feeling toward the homeless, the poor and the disabled change at Christmastime? The rest of the year, the homeless can sleep on the streets, go hungry, unwashed and with no medical care. Children go to bed (if they have beds) with empty stomachs. Families sleep in cars.

Now it is quiet. Christmas is over. The celebrities, television and radio staffs, and those in all those other organizations, can sleep easy. They’ve done their yearly good deed. The poor and homeless people close their eyes and dream about their next Christmas meal.

We did our duty. Next Christmas we will do it again. Give them food and toys.

How lucky they are.

Ida Bernstein, 91, is an artist in Los Angeles.