The Christmas Spirit: Let's Fight Over Shoes!

Well, it was inevitable this dreary Christmas shopping season would end the way it began. As you saw on the news, there were fights and riots in malls all over the country because people wanted -- get ready, this is important-- A new line of Air Jordan shoes!

It was the perfect bookend to the beginning of the shopping season, Black Friday, when people scuffled, fought, pepper sprayed and battled for the cheapest, er, I mean most thoughtful (ugh) Christmas gift.

People scuffle for Air Jordans on Dec. 23 in this image
by Todd Sumlin in the Charlotte Observer

The shoe battles yesterday had a sort of entrepreneurial bent. Since the company that makes them made sure to keep a small supply of them -- all the better to create a frenzy and boost sales, eventually -- people put the shoes on line and asked ridiculous prices for the footwear. And no doubt people will pay up, whatever price is necessary.

Because it isn't Christmas without a new pair of Air Jordans.  And doesn't the Bible say that we're supposed to get in fistfights in shopping malls to honor the birth of Jesus? Oh wait, Nike's ad campaign said that, not the Bible. My bad.

I'm pretty secular, both in a religious and commercial sense,  so maybe that's why I'm not caught up in any of the Christmas inanity, insanity, whatever you want to call it.

I don't mean to be a killjoy. There's lots to like about Christmas. There are plenty of random acts of kindness going on out there, too, like those people raiding KMart stores to pay off people's layaway accounts, so I do have a bit of the warm and fuzzies going on.

But here I sit early Christmas Eve morning, getting things ready for the big day. Monday is Boxing Day, which is my favorite holiday. It's a favorite because it means Christmas is over.