Volume 28, No. 46
December 7, 2003                   

Christmas Outside the Box

  “What are you doing?” the mother asked as she watched her little boy carefully sort through his package of Animal Crackers.  “I’m looking for the seal,” he replied.  “It says on the box not to eat the cookies if the seal is broken.”

   Animal Crackers have been a source of puzzlement and pleasure since 1902 when they hit the market big during the Christmas season.  Though the cookies got their start in England during the 1890s, they were made famous by the marketing savvy of the National Biscuit Company (Nabisco).  The company put the creature-shaped crackers in a box resembling a brightly-coloured cage and called them “Barnum’s Animals” at a time when P.T. Barnum’s circus was gaining fame as “The Greatest Show On Earth”.

   When Nabisco added a string handle to the box, it made the cookies easier to handle and transformed the container into a play purse.  It also encouraged parents to use the packages as decorative Christmas tree gifts.  The company sold thousands, each with twenty-two cookies representing seventeen animals:  bears, bison, camels, cougars, elephants, giraffes, gorillas, hippopotami, hyenas, kangaroos, lions, monkeys, rhinoceros, seals, sheep, tigers and zebras.  There were walking bears and sitting bears.

   Every child’s dream was to find a complete zoo in each package but that almost never happened.  The machine-filled boxes all had a different mix and it was easy to end up with a herd of bison but not a single bear, or a caravan of camels but no cougar.  That gave a sense of expectancy to the purchase of each box.  In another interesting twist, Nabisco also learned that most children across North America  followed a very distinct ritual when eating their cookies.  The back legs were the first to go, then the forelegs, followed by the head and, lastly, the body.

   To celebrate the centennial of Barnum’s animals in 2002, Nabisco added to the menagerie the koala, which consumers chose over the penguin, walrus and  cobra.  Further changes are likely.  Only the lion, tiger, bear and elephant have survived all 100 years since that first Noel.

   With yet another festive season upon us, it seems to me a box of Animal Crackers remains a good metaphor for Christmas.  Again this year, many of us will be drawn, not to the Prince, but to the brightly-coloured packaging.  Packaging that comes with strings.

   Yes, it’s easier to handle Christmas if you reduce it to presents, parties and peace on earth.  None of that comes with  troubling questions about a personal relationship with God or individual accountability.  There’s no need to think.  No need to change.  And, at least on the surface, the temporary, touchy-feely fixation with family time and goodwill toward men is a welcome change from the grinchy way most of us behave the rest of the year.

   But that kind of Christmas is merely ornamental, sentimental and experimental, for many of us.  Every year, we try to find just the right mix to make the holidays complete.  The marketers dispense the holiday hype and we eat it up, never stopping to question or quibble while we nibble, following the same pattern as everyone else.

   But despite the initial air of expectancy, there’s always something missing.  It’s the Lion (Rev. 5:5) and the sheep.  Christmas without Christ and the encouragement of his people will always leave us looking for more, no matter what else we add over the years.

   That’s because the real message of Christmas is hope.  Since God became like us, we can become like him.  We can share his presence, peace and power because the manger baby grew up and tore down the barrier of sin that otherwise would’ve kept us separated from our holy Father.  Our relationship with Jesus is sealed by his blood, but that seal can never be broken.

   Remember, the Gift of God was hung on a tree but, in him, you’ll find nothing missing.  So if you think Christmas has had the biscuit, think outside the box.

By Rick Gamble, published in Cross Current, the weekly newsletter of the Followers of Christ congregation in Brantford, Ontario, Canada.  Reprint at will in not-for-profit publications.  To subscribe, contact sgamble@bfree.on.ca