According to Art Conrad of Bremerton, Washington: Christmas is dead. No, Santa isn’t dead. The reindeers are probably still frolicking in their little indoor luxury suite. But whatever the true meaning of what Christmas was meant to be has been twisted and morphed into what we Americans adore: materialism/commercialism.

In an ode to the materialism of the holidays, Conrad decided to get a little creative by nailing on a Santa Claus to a cross. He used the picture for his Christmas card with the words: Santa died for your MasterCard.

Genius. Give this man a Pulitzer Prize.

There should really be anti-shopping Christmas cards on the market. I’m surprised Hallmark hasn’t jumped on that wagon yet. Or malls could get a whole new kind of campaign out based off of P. Diddy’s Vote or Die campaign. Shop or Die, with the pictures of tall, menacing guys in suits with nametags that read Macy’s or Apple and have giant bear traps under the customers’ feet, waiting to snap shut if they don’t purchase that 80 Gig iPod. Sort of like those SAW movies, but a little more bizarre and twisted – in that greedy corporate sort of way.

Personally, the only time it feels like Christmas is when I see some lady standing on the corner by the mall with about twenty bags of crap. I wonder if her credit card bleeds eggnog.
—Eming Piansay