In all this frenzy, what do we add to our lives? anxiety? feelings of inadequacy because we could not find the perfect gift? And how much love of one's fellow man is generated by the long lnes at department stores, the mad rush to buy and hide and wrap and cook and decorate.
And after Christmas, then what? we clean. We clean up wrappers, we clean dishes. we pick pine needles out of the carpet for a long, long time. for some of us, it is months of before we have packed away all of the ornaments and decorations, and hauled the boxes back into the rafters where, in just a few more months, we must crawl again to begin the process once again.
In many families, if not most, the bulk of this effort falls on the shoulder of one person. (thats not me, just so you know) And for that person, christmas can be a nightmare. for all of us, the commercial expectation of Christmas has almost completely consumed that c elebration which once gave us the phrase "christmas spirit." Its difficult to imagine children who are raised in this culture enjoying in their later years the warm memories we would all wish upon them. you can't purchase for a kid the warmth of a home filled with family you cant wrap your love for them in a package and tie it with a bow. If you spend an entire month struggling to tell them in one moment the enormity of your love for them, when they are old, what will they remember? that for a month you were gone, not being with them until in one brief, highly pressured moment, you were almost there. But then yo got out the camera and pushed the boxes in front of them and recorded their reaction to your colorful shiny bright and perfect whatever it was, desperately hoping that you had purchased for them the perfect moment.
They probably wont remember what the gift was. neither will you. But the anxiety will have its toll on us all.
It may be that Christmas never was "the way Christmas used to be." But that cant stop us from making it that way now, and giving back to our children what was taken from us, and probably our parents too.
Christmas should be a day about family, and it not shopping. What we give to one another should be a source of Joy for them, and not a proclamation of our love in money. the diong of a kind deed, or even some honest, heartfelt words will always be ore memorable than a thing we bought someplace. When my children are old, they will know that i loved them not by the mountains of toys that they accumulated, but by the wealth f memories they hopefully will have.
Show your children your love, don't try to buy it for them.
Celebrate WITH your family, don't create a celebration around them.
Be kind to your neighbor, don't compete with them.
Make a True Christmas.
Don't buy a fake one.
