Every Christmas for me is always spent trying to find the perfect gift for friends and family. The anxiety mounting daily to find a gift that everyone will love is a stressful situation.
Although I always try to find the perfect gift for everyone a month in advance, it never actually turns out that way.
I always find myself in some department store running around trying to find gifts for everybody that I love.
With shopping on Christmas Eve, there’s always that holiday shame that accompanies you whenever you step into the department store, with the workers staring at you almost saying with their eyes, “you’re cutting it close here.” Take this from someone who works retail, we are indeed thinking this.
Although that holiday anxiety is at an all-time high on Christmas Eve, instead of spending time with family it’s always spent running around in a frenzy.
On top of the holiday stress, there’s always the copious amount of money spent on everyone you have to buy for, leaving you with next to no money left to spend on yourself over the holidays.
Although Christmas is supposed to be spent with family and friends, I always seem to miss out on that quality time with the people I love by trying to find them the perfect gift.
After every holiday season, I am always left with the question of what is the meaning of Christmas? Why do I feel this immense pressure to find the perfect gift for everybody who I know won’t always appreciate the effort?
There’s always pressure to find a gift, coming from every single source of media I consume — from television ads, ads on Instagram telling you to buy the perfect pair of leggings for your mom, to texts from companies you gave your email to in order to get a discount.
I have always enjoyed repeatedly watching the Christmas classic A Charlie Brown Christmas, where Charlie Brown, the main character, is tasked with finding a Christmas tree for a play. Although he does not find an adequately large tree, he finds a scraggly little one with character.
Despite it not being the best Christmas tree, Charlie grapples with whether he is doing Christmas right. Ultimately the movie ends with everyone embracing the Christmas tree while singing Christmas carols.
Although I know Christmas isn’t anywhere near this ideal, I can never shake the standards I have of Christmas from this movie. Are we, as people, doing Christmas right?
I feel like society is more entangled with receiving gifts than trying to spend time with one another. The commercialized aspect hits an all-time high with the amount of waste coming from Christmas wrapping gifts, and the overconsumption of pretty much everything.
Perhaps instead of overconsuming on everything, we spend time with one another, make paper snowflakes, make gifts instead of overbuying and live in the moment instead of idealizing what Christmas could be and missing out on it.
Although Christmas is supposed to be about giving, the Massachusetts Daily Collegian states “in today’s society, Christmas is used simply as a marketing ploy so that greedy corporations can take consumers’ money. In 2016, the total expected holiday sales were expected to exceed $1 trillion, and this number is projected to keep rising every year.”
Even though Christmas is supposed to be about goodwill toward others, it’s a commercialized scheme to get you to buy things that you and your family ultimately don’t need.
Although I seem to be criticizing people who overconsume, I do all these things too. I love buying wrapping paper, gifts and spending copious amounts of money on holiday festivities. In short, I give in to consumer greed more often than I would like to admit. Still, it makes me happy because it is Christmas.
I am well aware of my overconsumption and am intentionally working to change by buying less. Before the winter holidays start, I would say enjoy your winter break and be mindful of how much you are spending during the holiday season.
