My family celebrated Christmas to not only become closer as a unit, but to celebrate the birth of Christ, our Savior. Presents were important, but having each other - and the experiences - were what was most important to us.
However, something changed. Not only within our own family, but through out all of society as a whole.
Slowly but surely the traditional elements of Christmas - faith and family - were replaced with materialism and who possessed the most objects, or received the most expensive presents, or the latest video game console.
You see it every holiday season, when hordes of turkey filled consumers rush the doors and fight gladiator style through the aisles at Wal-Mart to get their hands on the latest, and greatest, and not to mention cheapest, vacuum.
Talk about taking Christ out of Christmas.
It's not all negative. To be sure: acts of kindness still exist, but unfortunately in our culture, they are worthy of media coverage because of their exception to the general rule, and that just... Makes me wonder where it went to hell.
Me, personally? My favorite Christmas memory is of the time my brother Isaiah and I bought each other football's behind the others back, or when my mom and I trudged up the mountain and chopped down our own tree.
Those were some great times, but today it feels like I am being strangled by a wall of materialism and hyper commercialism that is destroying the true meaning of the holiday and just replacing it with yet another extension of societal greed.
And yes, Christmas isn't really about Christ, because it represents a throw back to Ancient Rome and the pagan gods of old, but even that isn't as bad as today's gods of greed and objects. Damn, don't I sound like a bah humbug?
Say what you will, but each Christmas I feel myself drifting further and further away from celebrating it, because of what it's become. And as time continues to march on, the memories of old are badly fading away.
Leaving me with just this question: where is Christmas? And can it ever truly be recovered?
1 comments:
The Spirit of Christmas is giving. If you look throughout the Schoharie Valley I think you will see the Christmas Spirit is alive and well. I see it in the volunteers who dash from their table to help a stranger in need with the ambulance or fire truck; I see it in May with all those who give to neighborhood kids the gift of sportsmanship as they coach baseball or soccer; I see it in all those who give their time to Scouts, 4-H, the animal shelter. And we ALL saw it in the help and response after Irene and Lee. Yes Mr. Knight, we are barraged with bad news from East Bern and NYC, with adds for the latest MUST HAVE! But look beyond the hype and you will see that the Spirit of Christmas is alive and well in Schoharie and throughout this great Nation of ours.
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