Christmas, consumption and materialism: discourse analysis of children’s Christmas letters

Abstract

Purpose -This article reports the results of an empirical research that sought to understand the many meanings referring to Christmas that appear in letters written by children and sent to Santa Claus. It is based on the idea that, by means of a playful activity such as writing Christmas letters, children would be able to bring up a variety of issues referring to their daily lives.Design/methodology/approach -This research, which is of interpretative nature, made use of elements belonging to discourse analysis. Discourse analysis is a theoretical and methodological field linked to Linguistics, which studies language in movement, producing meaning since it is a social practice.Findings -The results point to discursive marks that suggest traces of materialism and secularism in the narratives and stories created by children concerning Christmas. Moreover, Santa Claus is directly associated with the date and stands out as an emblematic figure in children's imagination.Originality/value -Reporting Christmas imagery and the creation of its meanings by children can help unveil essential issues, or at least point out "clues" referring to the degree of symbolism that is present in the various social and cultural manifestations of contemporary society.

Impact of motivations to buy and offer gifts in consumerism at Christmas

“…A gift reveals sympathy, appreciation, and is donated free of charge without expecting anything in return (Ferreira, 2019). According to Batinga et al (2017), the act of giving can be defined as a symbolic exchange in social relations, and the gifts are imbued with cultural meanings and symbolic properties. Gifts extrapolate their commercial and utilitarian values, and are in constant motion, moving from a culturally constituted world, moving to their own good, for only then distance themselves from this and moving to the consumer, fitting to that assign its final meaning.…”

“…According to Batinga et al (2017) the so-called "Christmas spirit" would be responsible for causing a change capable of causing impersonal goods to be transformed into gifts exchanged within families, having as fundamental motivation the affection, for the consolidation of social ties, allowing the distancing from commodification and impersonality that characterize the modern world.…”

“…When the Christmas season approaches, the most common thoughts are reflected in what to buy, who to buy, and when to buy in order to give people a gift at Christmas. For Batinga et al (2017), the act of buying as a gift -especially in family affective relationships as the main recipient of gifts -would be a way of making the transition from the universe of goods to the gifts world.…”

“…Consumption can be seen, according to Storni and Estima (2010), as an active mode of relationship with the community and the world, and a mode of systematic activity and response to capitalist production, on which the system is based on Western culture. Batinga et al (2017) understand that consumption is cultural and all forms of consumption are culturally specific, since they are continuously articulated in relation to significant and specific ways of life.…”

“…To analyze the motivation to offer gifts, five items were used (Table no. 1) based on Caplow (1984); Lemmergaard and Muhr (2011); Bueno (2014); Batinga et al (2017); Corzo (2018); Ferreira (2019); Passos et al (2020). These items were measured using a 5-point Likert scale (1-Not important to 5 -Very important).…”