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Stress takes away from true spirit of Christmas

Date published: 12/13/2007

AROUND THIS time of year, it is impossible to avoid commercials raving about great holiday sales and shoppers rushing around madly looking for the best deal. Christmas is basically shoved down the throats of shoppers every few seconds with obnoxious music, goofy decorations and holiday sales. It is also impossible to avoid grumpy adults freaking out about how they are going to have to go into debt after Christmas.

All of this is not what makes me hate Christmas, but rather what Christmas has become. It seems that the only people who get excited about the holidays anymore are little kids. Everyone else just gets stressed out. Things were not always this way, though. Families used to look forward to this time of year as an escape from their day-to-day lives. It was a time to spend time with friends and family, rest, honor religious practices and eat good food. Now, it just means last-minute shopping and scrambling to buy gifts that the recipient might not even like.

As a pending adult, I refuse to give up my love for the holiday season and become bitter. I thought this would be really hard, until I realized that the presents have always been a tiny part of what I enjoyed about Christmas. When I was little, it was always the excitement of going to my grandma's, the snow, the beautiful lights and decorations, and the happy feeling that accompanies this time of year. That's not to say that as a child I did not delight in gifts--but as I get older and learn that lots of things are more important than material possessions, Christmas has more and more appeal to me.

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Date published: 12/13/2007