Responsible Christmas Giving
I just read part of a blog about the case for not buying Christmas presents. The commercialism, the waste, blah blah blah. It's the same old thing. Person gets up on high horse - "I will give low packaging, self-sustaining, low cost presents because I care more about the world than you do, you greedy capitolist pig."
They should just say bah-humbug and go home already.
I don't like crazy shopping either. I don't like dealing with crowds at the mall. I don't like hunting for a parking space. But, I do enjoy strolling through the pretty decorations, and the music that plays, and the line of kids waiting to see Santa. I enjoy window shopping, and looking at pretty things and thinking which pretty thing my family member might like / use / need.
I enjoy my nativity, and thinking about explaining the Christmas story to Grady. I enjoy the Christ centered Christmas music (and the secular music too!). I enjoy just about everything associated with this holiday. I don't like saying Happy Holidays. I think if you get time off for CHRISTMAS, I should be able to say MERRY CHRISTMAS. You're not getting the 25th of December off because it's winter. You're getting that day off because it's Christmas, the day Christ was born.
But that's me up on my own box.
I'm not sure when giving gifts became so synonomous with Christmas. I know that the gifts that were brought to Jesus are used as an excuse to give all sorts of things. I know many people give way, way too much. Kids, especially, are gorged on presents.
I'm not one to cast blame though. I bought presents for my neices and nephews and I really hope they like them. Even though I know their parents and Santa in some cases will probably get them anything they would really like.
But it's a family holiday, and I like to be a part of those days even if we can't be there. Sending a present is sort of like sending a hug, since I can't be there to give a hug.
There isn't really a great reason to spend money on presents. Except that buying other people things makes me happy. I don't go to the mall, I buy almost everything on line these days.
But, I will say, that if we were in debt or could not afford Christmas, we wouldn't do it. I do not support credit card shopping for things, when one can not pay the debt back. I know many, many people go into debt during the holidays and spend the first two months of the year (sometimes more) paying it back. That's not good. That's pretty sad actually.
**This was added after first publishing**
But I've decided that buying online helps you not only avoid the crush of people at the malls / stores, it also helps you stay in budget. You can go through, click through what you are thinking of, right down totals, scale back, etc, and then after an hour or so of adding things to your cart, you're done, and you can see your grand total and see how much you've spent. The very disciplined among us (not me) can probably do this by subtotaling reciepts at the end of a shopping day. I like seeing everything in my amazon cart and knowing how much I spent.
But Christmas has a special ... prettiness to it this year for me. Grady (kids in general) bring a whole new level to holidays that just isn't there when you're just hanging with the husband. We went and saw Santa this year! We're going to a tree lighting on Saturday. We're going to see parachuting Santa's a week from Saturday. These events I have skipped in years past. This year I can't wait to show them to Grady, to see which tickle his funny bone.
And I really can't wait to help him rip paper and play with boxes and have an all together good time. It may be commercial, capitolist garbage. But he's going to go absolutely NUTS about all the paper, and the joy it brings him will make me happy.
And Christmas is all about joy.
They should just say bah-humbug and go home already.
I don't like crazy shopping either. I don't like dealing with crowds at the mall. I don't like hunting for a parking space. But, I do enjoy strolling through the pretty decorations, and the music that plays, and the line of kids waiting to see Santa. I enjoy window shopping, and looking at pretty things and thinking which pretty thing my family member might like / use / need.
I enjoy my nativity, and thinking about explaining the Christmas story to Grady. I enjoy the Christ centered Christmas music (and the secular music too!). I enjoy just about everything associated with this holiday. I don't like saying Happy Holidays. I think if you get time off for CHRISTMAS, I should be able to say MERRY CHRISTMAS. You're not getting the 25th of December off because it's winter. You're getting that day off because it's Christmas, the day Christ was born.
But that's me up on my own box.
I'm not sure when giving gifts became so synonomous with Christmas. I know that the gifts that were brought to Jesus are used as an excuse to give all sorts of things. I know many people give way, way too much. Kids, especially, are gorged on presents.
I'm not one to cast blame though. I bought presents for my neices and nephews and I really hope they like them. Even though I know their parents and Santa in some cases will probably get them anything they would really like.
But it's a family holiday, and I like to be a part of those days even if we can't be there. Sending a present is sort of like sending a hug, since I can't be there to give a hug.
There isn't really a great reason to spend money on presents. Except that buying other people things makes me happy. I don't go to the mall, I buy almost everything on line these days.
But, I will say, that if we were in debt or could not afford Christmas, we wouldn't do it. I do not support credit card shopping for things, when one can not pay the debt back. I know many, many people go into debt during the holidays and spend the first two months of the year (sometimes more) paying it back. That's not good. That's pretty sad actually.
**This was added after first publishing**
But I've decided that buying online helps you not only avoid the crush of people at the malls / stores, it also helps you stay in budget. You can go through, click through what you are thinking of, right down totals, scale back, etc, and then after an hour or so of adding things to your cart, you're done, and you can see your grand total and see how much you've spent. The very disciplined among us (not me) can probably do this by subtotaling reciepts at the end of a shopping day. I like seeing everything in my amazon cart and knowing how much I spent.
But Christmas has a special ... prettiness to it this year for me. Grady (kids in general) bring a whole new level to holidays that just isn't there when you're just hanging with the husband. We went and saw Santa this year! We're going to a tree lighting on Saturday. We're going to see parachuting Santa's a week from Saturday. These events I have skipped in years past. This year I can't wait to show them to Grady, to see which tickle his funny bone.
And I really can't wait to help him rip paper and play with boxes and have an all together good time. It may be commercial, capitolist garbage. But he's going to go absolutely NUTS about all the paper, and the joy it brings him will make me happy.
And Christmas is all about joy.
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