Has Christmas lost it’s true meaning?

Has Christmas lost it’s true meaning?

What does Christmas mean to you? To me it means spending time with my family, catching up with friends and enjoying the holiday for what it is. I am not a religious person as such but I do believe that Christmas is a time to be spent with ones loved ones.

Traditionally Christmas Day celebrated the birth of “Jesus Christ” and became a religious holiday for many. Over time Santa Claus was introduced and although he is based on a real person the true meaning of Christmas has been forgotten and children actually believe more in Santa Claus than they do in Jesus Christ. Although this has happened over thousands of years and new cultures have made their own interpretations of Christmas, you can not help but wonder where the idea changed over the years.

Over recent years the emphasis of Christmas has shifted from seeing family & friends to how much money we can all spend. Additionally we all like to drink and eat more than we really need to and everyone always regrets it in the new year.I know Christmas is a time for giving and receiving but surely it is more about the thought and effort that has gone into the gift than how much it cost. I can not help but wonder where the idea that spending endless amounts of money on people came from.

There are a lot of people that expect to have a lot of money spent on them at Christmas and although I agree that you need to get something they will like I do not agree that you should have to spend hundreds of pounds on them just because it is Christmas. You should spend what you feel is right and I know there is often a feeling of guilt attached to buying presents especially if you have spent a lot less than the other person has spent on you. Should you really have to feel this way because someone expects you to spend the same or more than they have spent on you?

The matter is not helped by the shameless marketing and advertising done by shops, media companies and any company that wants to cash in on Christmas because of what it has become. And let’s face it, Christmas has become the most profitable time of year for many shops now and more and more is done each year to make sure we spend as much money as possible.

You very often now go out into the shops and see Christmas decorations for sale from late October and adverts start appearing on the television encouraging us to go out and needlessly spend money on presents for people and again the emphasis is placed on how much we spend. Here in the UK it was estimated that on Christmas Eve as a nation we spent just under £1 million per minute in a last rush of present buying before Christmas Day, staggering to say the least. Do we really need to spend this much money just to satisfy the wants of other people? I am sure there are a lot better causes that this money could be used for.

Again on Boxing Day people were forming lines outside of shops in anticipation of spending money on things most people do not actually need, so really just spending money just for the sake of it. I do agree that whilst the sales are on and you do genuinely need something then it is a good time to take advantage of the cut sales prices but it still only lines the pockets of the companies you are buying from.

All this further highlights the fact that Christmas is really to most a time to make money from advertising done to encourage people to spend money they do not really need to spend over shadowing the true meaning and values of what Christmas should really be about.

Another example of how we are slowly becoming detached from Christmas is the amount of money we are expected to give to one another. I was shopping in my local shop just yesterday (28th December) and I over heard a conversation between two young lads. The first lad asked “What did you get for Christmas?” The second lad answered “Well, my mom did not know what to get me so she just gave me £800”. Now I am sure that each family gives to their children what they believe is correct, but £800 is a lot of money to give as a Christmas present and surely it does not teach anyone how to be responsible with money.

As years go on the gifts we buy get more expensive and what we are expected to get for our children becomes more expensive. We all expect laptops, a Playstation, an Xbox 360 and items that are high value. And if we do not buy them then we are seen as being mean.

By the time the new year comes around we all start receiving our credit card statements and cringe when we see how much we have really spent on just making one day of the year as great as possible. We then spend the next few months paying off those credit card debts in preparation for the following Christmas when we do the same again. But of course we go about it in the wrong way, believing that spending large quantities of money will truly make Christmas Day special not realising that the real value of Christmas can be found in the love and friendship we have had with family and friends over the years. That is something that should be celebrated and encouraged throughout the world instead of believing that the more presents you give and the more you receive is how you judge whether or not your Christmas was great!

As I said at the beginning of the article I am not religious in any sense but the point I am trying to make I guess is that many of us now see Christmas as a time to get drunk and merry and spend large amounts of money on items that most of the time really do not amount to more than a large credit card bill. I would like to hear your views on Christmas and what has become of it!

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