This is the time of year I always have a rant about ‘having to do Christmas’ and by that I mean the expectation of gifts and social rounds.
Christmas is a beautiful time of the year and I am all for the peace and goodwill towards all men. Running up huge bills to ‘deliver Christmas’ to expectations is not my idea of peace and goodwill though.
It’s not that I run up huge bills over Christmas anyway. I am probably seen as scrooge and unimaginative as I tend to give pragmatic gifts.
In Holland, children are given presents on St Nicholas day, the 5th December. Christmas day is a day for the family to be together without handing out gifts to everyone. I like this model, gifts for the children only, probably because it was the model in our family when I was a child.
Recently I have come across a number of articles that echo my feelings about Christmas gift giving, the waste of money, how some people get into debt to fund their Christmas and then struggle to pay it off months into the New Year.
In one article the author claims Christmas presents are pointless and is bad for the economy and suggests giving gift vouchers instead so that the recipient can choose something that is useful to them.
Another writer explains why she is refusing to buy gifts this year except for children.
There is joy in giving – I am all for it. My gripe is with the hype and the expectation of it; when the newspapers, TV, shops and culture all around me shout ‘give’ because it is Christmas. When I give, I want to give from the heart. Something significant that truly matters to me and the recipient, otherwise the giving becomes another ‘should’, ‘must’, ‘have to’ that sucks the joy out of it.
I am heartened to see more articles calling for a review of senseless spending and giving and suggesting ways to reduce the cost of Christmas: presents for children only, each person buying one gift only to give to someone else, setting a cap on the spend per person, making homemade gifts, clubbing together for larger gifts. Some of these ideas require discussion, agreement and some pre-planning in advance, but hey, it can be done.
Ok – that’s me. Rant over. I accept it is as it is. I can make of it what I will. After all, you can only change what you have control over. The trick is to know the difference. That’s why the serenity prayer asks for wisdom.
God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
The courage to change the things I can,
And the wisdom to know the difference.
Photo Credit: Korosy Istvan
