Does Christmas feel less like a holiday and more like a deadline?

In this holiday anti-special, we peel back the wrapping paper on the "most wonderful time of the year" to reveal the capitalist engine underneath. We aren't just being Grinches—we are analyzing how a religious and social tradition was systematically replaced by a financial imperative.

If you feel stressed, broke, or empty this December, it’s not you. It’s the simulation.

We cover:

• The Invention of Tradition: How Coca-Cola designed Santa and department stores invented Rudolph.

• The Elf Myth: Applying Karl Marx’s "Commodity Fetishism" to Santa’s Workshop.

• The Gift Trap: Why Marcel Mauss’s theory of the "Gift Economy" explains your holiday anxiety.

• Simulation Theory: Why we care more about the aesthetic of Christmas than the reality.

Key Takeaways:

• Why "nostalgia" is just affection for old marketing campaigns.

• How to opt out of the "Potlatch" of competitive gifting.

• Escaping the "Capitalist Realism" of Q4.