Do you think Christmas is really a celebration of consumerism?

[Rali_hates_Mondays]

I sound really pessimistic here but I really believe in this. The first thing I think of when Christmas is coming is what presents I'm gonna give/receive to/from my friends and relatives. They're probably thinking the same thing. Except my mum- she might be thinking about how she's gonna organise a dinner for 20 (in actual fact there are only 5 people to cook for!). A lot of my friends will be preparing their healthy livers for the traditional binge drinking intoxications. Children will be asking for Santa, not Jesus, what they want for Christmas.

And this is the reason why I love Christmas!

 

[sheep]

I hate xmas cos its all about the money

 

[treanir]

Yes, you do sound pessimistic, but that doesn't make it any more of a fact. Even though I personally haven't done any exchanging of gifts at Christmas for a couple of years now, for by far the majority (virtually everyone, I'd say), it's still very much a holiday of blatant materialism.

I'm not completely immune - I do like to have an extra nice meal on Christmas day. And that does mean an extra expense - shops too know it's the holidays!

 

[J-23]

Yes, it is. But that's what I love about it.

 

[sheep]

^ Exactly!



I just thought I'd mention this for the youngsters who may not know that piece of historical fact.

Season's Greetings.

Thank you JDs for having the balls (xmas tree) to bring this into historical perspective. The rest of the country seems to have missed the point.

 

[shahmask]

i love it! target had christmas decorations out in mid october. target's da shit!

anywho, it actually needs to happen. money has to exchange. if it doesn't happen, the economy becomes stagnant. so what if it is a holiday of capitalism. all holidays are holidays of capitalism. and, is that such a bad thing. it's great!

 

[hotcbr]

I agree that it seems to have become that. This is going to sound really messed up, but the most memorable and "pure" Christmas I've ever had was the one I had in 2003 when I spent it in Fallujah, Iraq. It was because I wasn't surrounded by commercialism and I wasn't going in debt trying to buy people crap. I spent it thinking about the things that were really important.

 

[puka-pride]

I haven;t thought about recieving presents this year... but i have been spending like crazy for my friends and family.. I finished today and spent about $500 total

 

[MidnightPrism]

I don't buy presents and I always request that no one buy me anything.

 

[GL]

Christmas SHOULD be what YOU decide it will be. No more, no less.

No one is holding a gun to anyone's head FORCING them to particiapte in rampant consumerism and commericality.

My sentiments exactly! Christmas is what you make of it. If you choose to partake in the consumerism/commerciality of it then that's your choice. The same applies to those who celebrate the religious aspect of the holiday. As for myself, I choose to celebrate it as Dickens wrote:

"But I am sure I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round -- apart from the veneration due to its sacred name and origin, if anything belonging to it can be apart from that -- as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time: the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys. And therefore, uncle, though it has never put a scrap of gold or silver in my pocket, I believe that it has done me good, and will do me good; and I say, God bless it!'"

I don't buy a great many gifts, usually just for my immediate family and friends. But I do my best to reach out to those at work, my absent friends and just about everyone in general and wish them the best. Letting them know that they are not forgotten is the best gift I can give them.

[steps down from soap box]