With the holiday season in full swing, and retailers excited about making their sales numbers, I just wanted to stop and remind everyone that the holiday season is about much more than just spending money. Having a good holiday doesn't have anything to do with how many expensive presents you wrap, but it is more about sharing love and joy with those you care about.
With the economy struggling to recovery, it is harder than ever to spend the amount of money on gifts than a few years ago. Even though retailers are showing increases in sales over last year, it seems that Americans are ready to make some real changes in the way that they think about money, savings and credit card debt. More and more people are starting to realize that they are trapped in a cycle of spending and making more debt. And everywhere you look, there is another commercial that reinforces the idea that buying extravagant gifts is the way to celebrate, and if you don't shop until it hurts, then you are a Scrooge. We seem to expect our purchases to fill up our souls, give us meaning, make us happy or provide us with the “perfect image” of success.
But it just isn't true. What ends up happening is that parents spend hundreds of dollar buying more and more presents for their kids. On Christmas morning, there is a flurry of present opening and squeals of delight. This is the moment that the commercials show, highlighting the joy and excitement in that moment. What they don't show is the moment that happens about 30 minutes later when all of the presents are opened, the kids are overwhelmed from all of the presents, and both the parents and the kids feel this sense of disappointment, thinking “is this all there is?”. After all of the build up and planning, it is over in just a few minutes, and no one really appreciates each gift individually, because there is just too much.
For me, my daughter has a grandmother who really enjoys buying Christmas presents. So much so, that no matter how hard I tried, I could never do more than she did. Anything I purchased would just end up thrown on the pile of gifts. I hated thinking that the gifts I worked so hard to save up for and selected with such care were just tossed to the side. It had to stop, so I looked for ways to make the holiday more meaningful and ways to give her something that would be special and give her joy for more than 30 minutes.
So, what did I do? Find a very expensive, sought after item she wanted and buy that for her? Well, I tried that one year, and it didn't really change anything. What I did was take a few steps back and realize that there is a huge difference between doing things and having things and it is the memories you share that last longer than the toys.
In the next installment of this series, I will show you a couple ways to make your holiday meaningful without spending a fortune and without the letdown.
Are you looking for a job in Philadelphia? Be sure to visit PhillyJobs.
By Melissa Kennedy- Melissa is a 9 year blog veteran and a freelance writer, along with helping others find the job of their dreams, she enjoys computer geekery, raising a teenager, supporting her local library, writing about herself in the third person and working on her next novel.
No comments:
Post a Comment