As December approaches, you can't help but notice Christmas is coming. I mean, its everywhere you turn. From the commericals on tv, posters in the stores, loads of catalogs arriving in your mail (or is that just me), etc, its hard not to notice that its coming soon. What is starteling to me, is that its really becoming very in your face about all the "stuff" you "need" for Christmas.
One commerical in particular is for a car. A husband (boyfriend, baby-daddy) buys his wife (girlfriend, baby mamma) a new car. It happens to be a smart car. She hugs him and looks thankful, but then another car, I believe a Buick drives by and she is immediately drooling over that car, instead of the one that her significant other bought. Looks back at him dissapointed. What sort of message is that conveying? That even if you buy your spouse a car, they're really not satisified? (On a lighter note, I can understand why the woman would be drooling over another car. I mean, really, Smart Car??! What respectable man buys one of those?? But stilll...thought that counts right?)
Shouldn't Christmas be more than cars, jewelery and all the glitz? Why are we so obsessed with stuff? Why don't we see the big picture here? What is Christmas really about?
Christmas, on a spirtual level, is to celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Its his birthday, not ours. Shouldn't our gifts be for him? Like showing him our love for others and reading His word?
Another way to look at it, isn't Christmas about spending time with those you love? Time is such a wonderful gift that we don't always give. Sharing food and genuinely loving one another.
Don't get me wrong, I love to buy gifts for others. I love looking for that one special gift that shows the reciepent that I really put thought into it. Watching them open it and seeing their face makes me happy. However, I feel that there is a line of too much Christmas and sometimes we toy with that. Over the top gifts, jewelery, cars, vacations...What happened to creative gifts from the heart?
I hate this time of the year for all the buy this, buy that, save 80% now!!, look your wife wants this $1000 ring!! BUY BUY BUY! everytime I watch tv or venture into a shopping place.
I hope to instill in my children that Christmas isn't all about stuff. I plan to teach them the real reason for Christmas and yes they will be recieving gifts, but on a controlled basis. My husband and I used the Something to Wear, Something to Read, Something they want, Something they need theory. Its our first time doing this. It might just stick with us for awhile. I really liked shopping with that in mind.
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