Holidays are for giving? Since when?

The holiday season is here again, and the hustle and bustle is filling the streets. People are running around like crazy trying to find that special gift for that special someone. 

When did the holiday season become about gifts instead of about family and the celebration of a new beginning? 

It seems as though, starting with Thanksgiving, the original idea of the holidays has gone out the window. In today’s world, there are few families who get together and celebrate the Pilgrims bonding with the Native Americans but rarely do we give thanks for what we have in our lives. 

Thanksgiving is a time to join the rest of your family at the dinner table and discuss the great sales and deals that will be available to you the following morning starting at 5 a.m. 

Families discuss what is on their Christmas lists and, honestly, think of nothing but themselves and what will be wrapped in pretty paper under the tree the following month. 

What happened to being thankful for what we already have instead of what we will hopefully get for Christmas? 

Thanksgiving is beginning to be taken over by Black Friday. I personally believe it is time we bring our old traditions back. What is better, spending time with your family and being thankful for the love you all share or getting trampled because someone on your Christmas list really needs that flat screen television?

From Thanksgiving we move our way to Christmas, which used to be about celebrating Jesus’ birthday, in case anyone has forgotten. 

I remember going to church on Christmas morning and then coming home to help my Grandma put the final touches on the pumpkin pie before it goes in the oven. 

Now, if we even go to church, we go on Christmas Eve sometime around  4 p.m. just in case someone has to do some last minute shopping they can do so after church. 

My family is not the only family guilty of this. I have noticed the increase of bodies in church on Christmas Eve and decrease of bodies on Christmas Day. What are our holidays coming to?

 Since when do the holidays mean spending less money on gifts and getting gifts? Christmas is a time to celebrate the birth of Christ. For Christians, this means celebrating the day we were all ultimately saved. 

Let’s face it, if Christ was never born, there would not have been the whole forgiveness of sins factor or a reason for the Christmas season. 

Overall, I think everyone, everywhere needs to take a deep look at what they are doing on the holidays and see if they are spending them right. 

I am personally guilty of forgetting what the holidays are about and I think it is time we realize it is not about greed but about giving and by giving I don’t mean material possessions. 

Show an act of kindness; help someone out when their hands are too full. Embrace the holiday season for its spiritual reasons and leave materialism behind you and feel the gifts you receive on a more personal level.