Christmas Trees Trimmed in Irony, NYTimes

“American consumers’ spending on winter holidays including Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa has grown, rising from some $567.6 billion in 2012 to around $889.3 billion in 2021, according to data from the National Retail Federation, a trade group. Among the 93 percent of Americans that celebrate Christmas, according to a 2019 Gallup poll, a growing share focus on the Christian holiday’s nonreligious aspects, which include decorating trees.”

The same is true at Panache, where Ms. Shadden said Cody Foster & Co.’s ornament that looks like a syringe of Botox ($22) had been especially popular this year. The store’s more traditional décor, she added, is “usually what we’re left with at the end of the year to mark on sale.”

Lots of reading between the lines here re: secularization, consumer culture, luxury good upscaling, etc. A culture enrobed in self-referential identification is a culture well-prepped for sales.