It's that time of the year again, the stores and the commercials are selling stuff that people don't need (or want) through the image of the happy and perfect idea of Christmas. Lets all be happy and jolly and spend, spend, spend our money!
A local study shows that 29% of the people asked didn't look forward to Christmas. 27% don't like the stress that surround Christmas and gift shopping. 10% is s tressed because they know that they will not have the "perfect" Christmas and 15% is stressed because they know that they can't afford Christmas. 50% don't remember who gave them what for Christmas last year and 15% don't remember what they got at all.
No one forces people to celebrate Christmas, but it is really hard to stand up against the expectations that people around you have. Many will sigh and agree that it's pointless spending of money and that it would be better to put the money on other things, but in their next breath they say something like; "But you will exchange presents with X and/or Y won't you?" If you opt out on exchanging presents then people will look at you as if you are abnormal and then they will feel awkward around you because they decide that you are very poor and can't afford presents.
How much you spend during Christmas has somehow become a measurement on how much you are worth as a person. How much you spend on presents shows how generous and moral you are. How much you spend on decorations and food shows how successful you are as a person.
It's all BS of course.
The most disheartening part of it all is of course that the fairytale "good guy", Santa Claus, is spread as a reality. Santa don't care about all children in the world even though that's the claim. Santa discriminates against children of other religions and cultures, he also discriminates against poor kids and "he" gives the most to kids that have rich parents that already give their kids plenty. Is that really the kind of "role model" that people in this globalized world of today need? A hero that discriminates openly and is still worshipped to the point that people spend billions on him each year.
Oh... it's all about baby Jesus...? Who could have thought that ...
The Jesus that was born in the spring (or possibly the fall),
the Jesus who was a strict and practising Jew and wanted his followers to be the same?
That Jesus? Can't be. The followers of Jesus Christ should be celebrating Hanukkah, if anything, because that was what
he wanted.
How about the real Santa then? Saint Nicholas. He gave his gifts to
charity. He didn't give to friends and family or his coworkers, he gave to save three girls from prostitution/slavery. A group of nuns carried on his idea by putting food in stockings and leaving it at the doors of poor families centuries later, they gave to those who needed it the most. Nothing in their actions says; "Buy stuff that you can't afford and give it to people that really don't need it".
The "Christmas Spirit" spells; consumerism, selfishness and greed. During the holiday the domestic abuse rates spikes and children of alcoholics truly finds out what the "spirit" is while poor families have their faces rubbed in the fact that they are poor and "outside" of the happy Christmas bubble.
