Why yes, it’s Christmas. Again.

Has anyone else noticed that it seems to be getting here faster and faster every year? I have a theory about that (as I do about most things...), involving missing days from the calender and a giant sub-space device that’s making the world orbit the sun faster than normal. But that’s a story for another time.

So, I was watching tv last night (what else is there to do on a Sunday evening?) and deluge of Christmas ads started up for the night (Thank goodness for the new rules involving not screening toy ads before a certain time of the day...).

Anyway, there was this one ad that irritated me a bit - ‘It’s the giving season!’Uh yeah, okay. You can call it the giving season if you’re a church. Or the city mission. Or the salvation army. Or a family. But a shop? A shop, cannot call it the giving season. Because to them, it’s not about giving, it’s about selling. Selling, selling, selling. They should have said ‘It’s the spending money season!’

It’s insane how much money people in the western world spend on PRESENTS every year. And it’s not just the presents that we spend money on - down here in New Zealand and Australia, Christmas falls smack bang in the middle of our summer. So add the cost of summer holidays, new tents, new BBQ’s..... and everything else we get conned into buying to the bill, and theres a hefty debt left waiting for us after the season ends.

I’m all for presents. I LOVE getting presents. I love buying people presents. I love finding something that I think will fit them perfectly, or getting them something I know they wanted/needed, but couldn’t afford. It makes the soul feel good.
But is it really worth it?

Christmas, is not meant to be about the presents. But that’s what it’s become. Christmas is about the birth of Jesus - and hell (opps!) I’m not really a religious person. (I mean, I DID go to Church every Sunday for 18 years, and every Wednesday for 7 of those years) But I’m not the type of person who jumps about and shouts ‘Praise the Lord’ or the sort of girl who wants people to know aobut ‘The Glory of God’.

My philosophy is each to their own. We all believe in different gods, in different relgions... but in the end, as far as I’m concerned, it’s all one God. All one belief, all one religion.

My point being, that even though I’m not overly religious, I do believe that if we’re going to celebrate Christmas, it needs to be about what it’s about. It’s about the birth of Jesus, yes. But it’s about something else as well. It’s about love, about family, about togetherness. It’s about coming together, and enjoying our family, enjoying our friends, enjoying our lives.

It’s about tradition - it’s about putting up that tree, baking those cookies, and hanging up the mistletoe! It’s about letting Grandma drown the cake in whiskey once a week for two months before hand, it’s about letting Uncle Bill drink one too many egg nogs, it’s about setting up teh nativity scene and not letting anyone put Jesus out till 12.01am on Christmas Day. It’s about leaving out cookies and milk for Santa, carrots and hay for the reindeer, and ‘coaxing’ the kiddlets into thinking they heard Santa’s sleigh bells ringing in the night sky.

It’s a time to relax and unwind, be thankful, and find some peace in ourselves. If giving/buying presents does that for you? Great! Just don’t put yourself in debt to get there. But if you want to try something new this year, do what I’m doing. Set a limit on the amount of money you’ll spend per person and STICK TO IT.
Or hey, go a step further. Make your own presents.

I’m re-scrap booking my sisters baby book for her. Yes, it’s cost me some money to get supplies, but those supplies will go far enough to re-do my own baby book as well. And a few other projects. Maybe they’ll even cover next years Christmas cards.

Like I said, I’m all for presents. But I’m not all for advertising that tells us to ‘SPEND SPEND SPEND!’