For this post, I wanted to touch upon this past holiday season and how commercialism has taken over most, if not all, holidays. I don’t know about you folks, but I was struck by how early we were inundated with the lure to buy items for this year’s holiday season. To my dismay, I witnessed Christmas items on the shelves of stores two weeks prior to Halloween! Commercials on TV seemed to broadcast earlier than ever before! In no time, Christmas items will be out in the summer!
Regardless of
one’s religious beliefs, many would agree that it is sad that the true meaning
of Christmas has been lost and replaced by the requirement/expectation of
purchasing “gifts” for our loved ones.
It is at the point where many people choose to get into serious debt in
order to buy things for others in hope of meeting their desire to get each and
everything that they want. Everyone is
pressured to get massive quantities of “things” for everyone they know! It is at the point where most are made to
feel guilty if they do not get the newest and most expensive gadget on the
market for those closest to them! It is
as if one must “buy” the love of others!
What ever happened to the sharing of time and love? Isn’t that the true meaning behind the
holiday season?
It is clear
that, over the past few decades, the meaning/purpose behind holidays has
changed, such that a new meaning has been “fed,” if not dictated, to us and our
society concerning what the holidays are all about! It is time that we take back ownership of the
holidays! Maybe we need to boycott all stores
and stop buying “things”! Let them know
what the holidays should be all about!
Of course, if
this fails, do what I do: Blame it on fast foods!
You have a point!
ReplyDeleteWhat makes you say this?
Delete- B. J. T. Pepin
Well I did it again! I had posted a nice long response to your question and I clicked on a button so it is now in Cyber space somewhere….I think I need lessons on how to tweet or is it blog? I haven't had fast foods in a while but I will Blame it on Fast Foods… it can't be anything else….lol
ReplyDeleteCommercialization of Christmas
ReplyDeleteWell…I’m going to try again to respond to your comments about the commercialization of Christmas. This is my third try! I send and send and it flies into cyber space and doesn’t go to where I intend to send it. But I think I am getting smarter…..I’m using a program so that I can copy and paste…..so if it goes into cyber space somewhere all I have to do is to send again and hope that it gets to the right place….I am so computer savvy….lol.
This past Christmas the young coordinator and her assistant ,that take care of us in the seniors day program, were commenting on the gifts they were searching for or had already bought for their loved ones. They obviously cared enough for the people they were buying gifts for because they had put a lot of time and thought into buying the right gift. Both young ladies have spouses that work and they work …why? I would suspect that they want to travel or buy more toys. That is all well and good but when you have to put your kids in day care while you work I find that difficult to understand. One of the arguments people use is that your child learns to socialize better when they go to daycare. There are other arguments about how good daycare is for the child but I fail to agree. I think that our youth that are out of control are the result of the absent parents. But I digress!
So here we have hard working people putting money into gifts when the real reason for Christmas is to remember the “reason for the season” and to get closer to family and feed relationships. Ha!
When giving a gift the act should be a pleasure for both the giver and receiver but sometimes the giver is so eager to please the person they are giving the gift to that they don’t think of what and how the person receiving the gift is feeling. Personally there have been times when I was very uncomfortable when receiving a gift either because I didn’t have a gift to give in return or of equal value or felt that the person giving the gift could not easily afford it and had gone into debt in order to buy gifts.
Those are my thoughts. Too much of something…Blame it on Fast Foods.
The very commercialisation of Christmas creates the situation that you describe, where folks feel an imposed obligation and chase after the ever elusive "perfect" gift. This is exactly what the conglomerates want to have take place. They laugh all the way to the bank!
DeleteI enjoyed your point about kids and daycare. Once again it is the chase for and of "things" that leads people to put their children in the hands of others, where they are "socialized" into the beings that we read about in the news every day.
- B. J. T. Pepin