I remember the feeling before going to bed on Christmas Eve and the anticipation of Christmas morning...
I would have to be calmed with a warm glass of milk, a good story, and my mother rubbing my back. My dreams, filled with the joy and excitement of what I would receive the next day, caused a restless sleep. Christmas day was the most important day of the year for me.
Flash forward to now. I am browsing the internet highly stressed, unsure of what I am going to buy my friends and family members. I am typing away on a fairly new Macbook. I am texting on my new smart phone, and looking to my right to see my suitcase filled with designer clothes and a pair of new boots that I bought for myself because I “needed” them. It’s been Christmas all year for me. I have everything I could ever need and this year I will receive more stuff from my family.
Stuff I may not even like.
In the last couple of years, Christmas has lost its allure for me. All the joys of it have faded. It begins the day after Thanksgiving. I can’t go to the mall or turn on the radio or TV without being bombarded with commercials and ads telling me to buy stuff. It’s like I can’t digest the turkey first because corporate America fears that I’ll forget Christmas is just around the corner.
Now, maybe the first thing I don’t like about Christmas is that it’s a religious holiday, and I’m not religious. Everywhere I go I see little Nativity scenes and hear Christmas songs about the day our savior was born. I already get enough indoctrination during the year without Christmas.
Secondly, I don’t like how I am forced to buy gifts for a mass group of people. And what happens if someone buys me a gift and I didn’t get one for him or her? Awkward. I really like the idea of people buying me gifts randomly because they thought of me, like let’s say on June 11. That day has no relevance to me. It’s not my birthday. It’s not my anniversary for anything. It’s just a day and someone thought of me and cared about me enough because they saw something that they thought I would like. Those are my favorite types of gifts. Random acts of thoughtfulness. Not gifts with a big pretty bow on it because someone felt they had to buy me something.
Thirdly, why can’t everyone be joyful during the whole year? Why does it take some holiday, celebrating the birth of some kid thousands of years ago to be nice? Why can’t we give to Salvation Army because we know it’s the right thing to do? Why do these acts of kindness only have to be during a time when we are also receiving things? I have found that the people I enjoy the most are those whose spirit doesn’t change because of Christmas.
And lastly, Christmas is a corporate holiday and you’re making rich people even richer. It’s true. Did you know the last Saturday before Christmas is the busiest shopping day in the whole year? That’s right. It’s all you little last minute shoppers, scrambling to buy gifts because you feel like you have to.
I do enjoy one thing about the Christmas holidays though, and that’s how my family comes together at least once during the year and spends at least three or four days of quality time with each other. I wish a holiday wasn’t the driving force behind that and we just did it because we wanted to, but it’s still great to sit around the table and see faces that I love and care for deeply.
Maybe I’m just a Scrooge. Perhaps I got jaded under the pile of wrapping paper every year and forgot the true meaning of Christmas. Which is what again exactly?
My boyfriend suggested we do something a little different this year: instead of buying each other gifts, we would choose something we’ve been wanting to do and spend the money building a memory together, rather than adding more to the collection of things we have.
The anticipation of just getting stuff no longer appeals to me. I want to share memories, love, and laughter. That to me is a gift worth receiving and it doesn’t come with a price tag, which makes it priceless.
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Follow Anya on Twitter @anyaalvarez.
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erikdolnack
An honest assessment, Anya.
I think many feel this way about the Christmas holiday during this recession. Naturally the retailers are even more desperate to get us to buy during a recession, because that’s what a “recession” is: a stock-piling of products and services that aren’t being consumed. Our society is over-producing today in hopes of finding buyers throughout the world. But as most of the world is too poor to buy our goods, we must loan them money to purchase our products. That’s what the IMF and WorldBank do: lend third world nations money to hopefully buy the surplus of goods that aren’t sold here. Trouble is, it isn’t working. The third world is still too poor to purchase enough. In effect, Supply-side economics does not work in the long-haul and the cheap-credit bubble has burst. We’re now stuck with a bunch of crap and no buyers for all this crap.
Consumer spending is down all over the world. Holiday sales are usually below the predictions today in most markets. People don’t have the extra to spend today. And the ones that are working aren’t secure in their jobs, so tend to be more frugal, saving up for that rainy day.
Savings almost doesn’t exist today because workers aren’t earning enough wages to put some away each month, or invest some. Interest rates have been lowered to the point where savings almost doesn’t make sense. You might as well stuff your money in a sock and put it under your mattress. The government keeps lowering interest rates in hopes that this will encourage employment and investment, but it isn’t enough by itself. The investment is stil privatized and as we noted earlier, the private sector can’t find enough buyers for its goods today. Thus, the recession drags on, crossing its fingers that consumers will spend their way out of recession. It’s impossible.
I think part of what you’re going through, is just getting older. Face it, the Christmas holiday is for kids. I am single and don’t have children of my own. Christmas almost has no meaning at all for me today, whereas it once was a big part of my life. My friends and family that do have young ones in their lives do have a new reason to get into the holiday spirit, but in a new way, as they are now the ones making the holiday.
I’m a spring & summer guy. I don’t like cold weather and I hate the darkness and dreariness of this time of year. Everyone calls me “negative” for dissing their favorite holiday, but these same fatties can be pretty negative themselves on those hot sunny July afternoons, complaining about the heat. But then, I’d hate hot weather too if I was wearing a two-inch-thick coat of 200 pounds of fat on my body from eating Aunt Bettie’s Christmas cookies all winter. Touche.
See you at the swimming pools next summer, kids!