For some reason, many of us get way too caught up in the gift giving parts of Christmas and forget how important it is that we celebrate being together during this time. There are people in this world without even enough food to keep themselves and their families alive, and yet we are out here shopping and spending as much as possible trying to make sure our kids have any and everything they could imagine.
Christmas has become something that is nothing like it was intended to be. In modern times it is a commercialized ploy for those in power to get us to buy more and more crap that we don’t need. Sure, giving gifts is fine but is it necessary to do it on the level that we do? According to USA Today, on average Americans spend about 967 dollars each on presents each holiday season. This meaning that in total we spend about 680 billion dollars just on gifts for one another, most of which are tossed out in a short time period.
We run around like rats in a race doing all we can to spend the most just to try to impress others or make people feel special, is this necessary? Anyone who doesn’t feed into this kind of thing is deemed a Scrooge, even those who genuinely enjoy the season as it is. This year during Christmas it would be more than amazing if we could all focus more on loving one another and being there in the moment, than spending money on each other.
This world doesn’t need more useless junk, it needs real connections, and we all need to really come together. Parents who cannot afford a lot for their kids end up feeling like failures and the real reason why we are all coming together in the first place is lost. We shouldn’t be working throughout the year just to be able to get through this one holiday, we should be comfortable in general whether we spend a lot on presents or opt not to feed into things like this at all.
Christmas shouldn’t be a production, it shouldn’t be all about what we can get or what we can give. It should be about what we are all sharing together. Months before December rolls around companies are setting things up and making families think they should already be getting into the ‘holiday spirit.’ The more you think about it the sicker it might end up having you feeling.
Many have weighed in on this topic on Debate.org and one respondent wrote as follows:
It ruins it for the poorer families. Everybody saying that’s it’s your choice to buy so much clearly has never had any issues with money. For example, my family wasn’t too poor and I was happy on Christmas day and had a great time. But then going back to school and people asked me what I got and I happily told them. However, it would never be enough things and it would never be the right things. And I’d get made fun of because of it. They would have things like a new laptop and a new phone and I’d have neither or I’d have one worse version which I again I loved until the other kids told me how rubbish it was. So it parents under pressure that they just don’t need. They don’t need to be judged by other families and they don’t need to stress if they can afford presents and a good Christmas meal and pay for travel or more food depending on who’s hosting. Never mind getting into the excessive advent calendars, Decorations etc.
Retailers are taking advantage of us, and we really need to think about how things play out. Think about all of the people across the globe getting little to nothing during this time. Sure, it’s not your place to take care of them but that doesn’t mean we should ignore their existence. As humans, we all should be a bit more compassionate towards one another.
No matter how you look at things: presents and things, in general, aren’t going to meet anything in the end. You can’t take those to your grave and chances are they will end up in the trash at some point. Try to focus more on the emotional points of this holiday and really make sure your words and actions are reflecting the kind of things you want to put into this world.
We spend a lot of time celebrating different holidays that the corporate world has taken over, and yet we don’t stop to really be there for one another properly. We could all make a difference in the lives of one another if we tried hard enough. Perhaps we are celebrating Christmas all wrong. What do you think about this? Do we need more love this Christmas or are presents enough?