I love Christmas, I really do, but I can’t help but wonder how much longer it will be the holiday we all remember from childhood. Every year the stores bring out the decorations earlier and earlier. Christmas trees are up in the stores before the school supplies are even gone. Everything is advertised as that perfect gift for someone on your list. Have we forgotten what Christmas is about?
All day long I hear people talking and read online about the shopping, shopping and more shopping. The amount of debt Americans take on every Christmas is staggering. I’m as guilty as anyone else, I want Hailey to have all the things she wants. When I was growing up there were a few carefully chosen gifts for each of us. Now, under my tree as well as many others, there are piles of presents. If one is good, five is better and twenty is best.
When I look at pictures of children surrounded by piles and piles of things I’m reminded of the scene in one of the Harry Potter movies where Dudley is mad because he has one less present for his birthday than he got last year.
As a single parent I have to be especially cost conscious at Christmas, although I have been very fortunate and Hailey usually gets everything she wants. This year I found out who those presents under the tree are really for. They are for me, so I can feel like Hailey has had a good Christmas and that she doesn’t feel deprived. For Christmas this year she asked for picture frames and a new shower head. How that translated into over twenty presents I don’t know. It certainly wasn’t because she asked for things so it must be to soothe my Mommy guilt in other areas.
At work recently I was talking with one of the men I work with about Christmas. He said he couldn’t wait for it to be over, it’s all too much, the kids want more and more every year. His boys are 8 and 9 and the big present this year on every childs list is an Ipad. Really? A five hundred dollar gift for an 8 year old? As small children they don’t understand just how much money that is and why everyone else has one. How discouraging.
I am making a vow right now to do something I have wanted to do for years. Next year everyone on my list will receive homemade gifts, including my daughter. Christmas is about giving of yourself to others. The size of your wallet should not determine your happiness. Even if you do not celebrate the religious meaning of the season it is still an opportunity to give from your heart.
I will not let my guilt because Hailey has been raised by a single parent shadow our holidays anymore. We will do more and spend less. Time together is the best gift.