Merry Christmas: A Brief History of Why We Go Broke Every December (And Why It Doesn’t Matter)

This is an uplifting, positive article about the curious origins of the Christmas Gift.

Somewhere around mid-November, a switch flips in the collective American brain and we all start panic-buying things for people we’re not entirely sure we even like. Uncle Jerry gets another tie. Grandma gets another candle. The kids get whatever toy the algorithm told them they needed. We wrap it all in paper we’ll throw away in thirty seconds and call it tradition.

We stress about budgets. We fight crowds. We refresh tracking pages hoping that package arrives before Christmas morning. We convince ourselves that the quality of our love can be measured in dollars spent and that somehow, if we don’t get exactly the right gift, we’ve failed the people we care about.

But where did this whole thing come from? And does any of it actually matter?

The Romans Started It (Of Course)

Like most things we do in December, gift-giving traces back to the Romans and their Saturnalia festival. They exchanged small gifts called strenae, usually candles, figurines, or gag gifts. It was considered good luck a…