I Must Confess: I have mixed feelings about Christmas and really struggle to get into it every year.
Am I a Grinch? Or a Scrooge?!
I’ve already shared about the ghosts of Christmas past …
My main problem, and I know I’m not alone, is the blatant commercialism/consumerism, and the excessive pressure to “spend, spend, spend”. The temptation to prove my love with gifts is overwhelming!
Does anybody else feel like it is just spending for the sake of spending?!
Let’s face it, we live in the Lucky Country (even with drought, floods, and the Global Financial Crisis), and many of us are blessed to be able to buy whatever we need or even want. It seems such a waste to give and receive presents that will only collect dust, or tossed away, ending up as landfill …
My children have never had to go without, unlike my own childhood. But many is the time I have caved into that Christmas pressure and bought them toys and gifts which I *know* they don’t need, and which will be forgotten within days or even hours!
There are so many people in the world who don’t even have access to clean water or food, that it seems greedy and wasteful!
I can’t help feeling that I would rather buy a gift for my loved ones and friends for no particular reason, except that I have seen something that I know they will really enjoy.
To me, this seems a much better idea than struggling to come up with the “perfect” present on 25 December.
But would I?!
And would you if there was no such thing as Christmas?!