Somehow over the years, Christmas and its true meaning has been transformed by our society. Now obviously Christmas is the day that Jesus Christ was born and this is why it is celebrated nationally, but because everyone has different beliefs or chooses not to believe at all, I won’t go into any more of the religious aspect than that. What I want to analyze is why Christmas stopped being a time to share with your family and loved ones, and started being a time of extreme frenzy, stress, and a whole lot of spending money on materialistic gifts.
The older I get, the more I realize how ridiculous this concept is. We all spend so much time worrying about what to buy for people and whether they’ll like it, and we typically spend way more than we are financially able to. In all of this chaos, we forget to appreciate the real meaning of Christmas and savor the chance to spend time with our family, friends and loved ones. I don’t know about everyone else, but typically the overflow of “stuff” I get for Christmas isn’t even anything I need.
I feel so strongly about this concept that I convinced my family that instead of us all buying each other silly stuff that we don’t need or probably even want, or stuff that we are old enough to buy on our own if we really want, we should instead spend that money to take a trip together and just enjoy each other’s presence, without any gifts involved. Although this doesn’t completely get around the idea of spending lots of money, I do think that it means so much more to experience a new place with your family and get to take a break from all of the stressful aspects of our lives and just be with each other on the holiday.
I encourage everyone to think about this during the holiday season, and decide whether you’re buying gifts for the right reason or simply because you feel obligated. Instead of buying your friend a bunch of useless gifts, instead go to dinner together or do a fun activity you both enjoy. Instead of buying your family expensive gifts, make them something. Create a photo album for them. There are endless opportunities to make Christmas about spending time rather than money, as it should be, and I challenge you to discover those opportunities this December 2018.
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