Christmas is different for everyone. For some it’s a time to spend with families,for others it’s a time of giving and unfortunately, for many, the focus of Christmas is centred around receiving.
Has Christmas become a marketing ploy for multimillion dollar companies
to lure innocent shoppers into spending hundreds of pounds on presents and Christmas dinner and decorations? We, the naïve public, spend this
money and for what? One day. One day of joy in materialistic good that is over in twenty-four hours. One day people look forward to and one day that others dread for the whole year. It has become a month or two of commercial nonsense being constantly advertised in shops and on the television. With lights decorating every house in sight rising, rising the electricity bill, plastic Santas and decorative reindeers on every street corner. All of this contributing on destroying the planet for one day of the year. One day for fake happiness, family arguments and presents that you pretend to love. No one, except maybe some young oblivious children, is completely happy on Christmas Day. Many adults are penniless by the time Christmas arrives and are scrapping by until their next pay check.
Christmas, from a Christian perspective, is supposed to be a time to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ and to give and not expect anything back. Although no one knows the exact time he was born; the
25 Th. of December is the date which Christians have selected to celebrate
him coming into the world, or at least they are supposed to.
It is a time that should be about religion and people’s relationship with God. How they view themselves and each other in terms of religion and morals. In children’s minds Santa and what he leaves under the Christmas tree is the most important thing about Christmas. Should children be brought up this way thinking that it is only about receiving? Believing that everything is materialistic and that it is a selfish affair; that Christmas is only one day that everyone should be looking forward to all year. One day out of three hundred and sixty-five that is celebrated for no real reason in the eyes of many.
Although Christmas means different things to each individual person it has become a selfish affair; where few cares about what they give and only
what they receive. It’s is all about shopping for pointless presents, that no one will ever use, and spending large amounts of money on nothing. As bright Christmas lights flash all around us, insistent on being noticed, and presents rise is piles around plastics tress coated with colourful baubles and miles of tinsel I can not help but wonder if Christmas has lost its true meaning. How did we get so far away from our saviour in the manger?
By Aisling McAllister