I love Christmas! I love the warmth of the holiday, the soft glowing lights, the smell of cookies and cinnamon, and I also love cuddling up under the blankets with my precious boys and watching the snow slowly float to the ground. The family traditions are also one of my favorite things. My oldest son Jackson has started to look forward to the tradition that I have created for my family. Every year we watch the Grinch, the version with Jim Carey and also the traditional one and we drink hot cocoa with whipped cream and sprinkles on top while we decorate the Christmas tree together. The fact that Jack’s face lights up at the thought of our tradition completely warms my heart. Christmas has always been one of my favorite holidays but solely for the fun that it brings with decorations and my children’s wonder and excitement.
I do have to change the subject though and tell about the things I loathe about the holiday as well. I think the thing I’ve always hated most is the stress of the money involved. Calculating each paycheck to the penny to see how much money I have to spend on Christmas presents and figuring out how many pay periods were left before the “big day”. Stressing about having to present some wonderful thoughtful gift that was priced along the same lines of the other people in my long family line that continues to grow since people are popping out babies like a baseball pitching machine. Then there comes the many stories about people literally being trampled and dying from the crowd of mad people bursting through the doors on black Friday to save money. I avoid stores around the holidays at all costs. I shop on-line and usually pick a few things up here and there when I am already out grocery shopping and such. You would never in a million years hear me say that I am going shopping solely for Christmas presents.
Why do I say all of this, what possessed me to write my likes and dislikes. Well, Christmas 2017 changed my thoughts completely on the holiday. Don’t get me wrong I still absolutely love everything I previously did about Christmas before but next year will be so very different from all of the others in the past.
I sat in my Aunts living room on Christmas and went through the normal routine. All of the family gathered in the living room and everyone passed around the presents they got for each other. I watched the kids rip every present open and destroy the living room. I received a few gifts myself and there was one particular present I received from my cousin’s girlfriend. I felt a bit dumb as I didn’t get her anything but my thought was why would I? We don’t speak other than when I go home for the holidays and we have absolutely no relationship. Then that led me to the thought of why does everyone feel so pressured to get people presents for Christmas? Why do we put ourselves through so much stress cramming it all in and spending so much money? The next question…why the heck are we even buying each other presents? I do understand it is a season of giving but people……we have it all wrong. Cindy Lou Who has it absolutely right. There has to be more to Christmas than presents and materialism. All of these years I've been watching this move and I know almost every word. It really never sunk in until this past year.
We are absolutely ruining our children and making them extremely materialistic. We are also contributing the materialism by blowing this holiday out of proportion and focusing on the wrong things. I truly feel that the black Friday rush is disgusting and you would never catch me dead waiting outside for hours because a store only has five, sixty inch televisions for $200.00. No thank you!
A lot of children think that Christmas is about presents and Santa. When we should be teaching them that they shouldn’t be concerned with how many present they can get out of their parents or that Christmas is even completely about Santa. Yes I admit I allow my children to believe in Santa because the wonder and excitement in children is the most beautiful thing, but I have also let my oldest know that the reason that Christmas came about is because Jesus was born and that the reason that we are all getting present is because it is Jesus birthday. He looked at me funny when I told him this and asked me then why doesn’t Jesus get presents instead of us? I told Jackson that this will be the last Christmas where I buy ridiculous amounts of presents for him and his brother. They will still get a few things but definitely not nearly as much as I have gotten them in the past. There is absolutely no reason for it! Instead we will be spending time together doing things as a family as well as donating time each weekend in December to people in need. We will do things like, volunteer for the Salvation Army and my kids will ring the bell and collect money, or volunteer at a soup kitchen, or go to a nursing home and do something nice for them or even just spend time with the people who have no one. We will be helping and giving to other people and not in the form of presents but in the form of acts of kindness. I will teach my children to give to others and help others and not just during the holidays but every chance they get.
I may just be one person and we may just be one family but I will not allow my children to grow up thinking that life is about what you can obtain or that your status is about what you have. Who knows, maybe I can start a trend with my whole family and we can all spend time doing things together rather than feeling stressed about buying each other presents when we barely speak all year!
The world will begin to be a better place when we ourselves are better people. Let’s be there for each other. Let’s change the next generation and take the focus off of materialism and greed and get back to being thankful for what we already have and finding ways to help other people.
