I’ve heard people talking about Christmas and the need to buy their loved ones expensive gifts. Christmas is not about giving expensive gifts, it is about giving but that can be your time or sharing what you have with others.
Morning television is talking about people selling their family heirlooms, to buy children presents. Have we all gone mad? What’s wrong with giving your children practical gifts for Christmas? When my girls were younger I’d let them draw up a list of no more than ten items. One could be over £30 and at least five had to be under £5. I’d circulate this around the family and ask family members to buy something from the list. Sometimes family members would ‘club together’ to buy a gift and sometimes, like when I got the girls a Wii they shared the gift. I’d add practical things like bedding, towels, mugs, coats, pj’s, etc. My children always enjoyed their Christmas and looking back they don’t consider that they missed out.
Giving children gifts costing a lot of money is sending the wrong message and sets a precident for the future because every year the expectation will be that they will expect to have more and more. It sets them on the path of unrealistic expectations in life.
Other discussions are centred about the stresses of Christmas. It seems that a lot of families fall out at this joyous time!
It is astonishing how people like to fall out with one another. Fall outs are not just with families, organisations of every kind be it national and local government, clubs and societies have arguments or take a side. It’s nearly always associated with personalities rather than real issues. Outside of families it involves threats of ‘going to the press’, resignations, bitterness and sometimes results in lifelong hatreds. How foolish is that? How much better it would be if we just moved forward and just agreed to disagree?
So as we approach Christmas, maybe we should all take stock of our lives, sort out our disagreements or just agree to disagree, put our petty spites and resentments away in every aspect of life. The wrong doings of others or the past should not dictate the future. The line needs to be drawn and we need to write the next chapter of our life.
We need to remember that Christmas doesn’t have to be a challenge and is about much more than how much we’ve spent on a gift. When we do maybe we’ll be happier and maybe giving time and kindness might become fashionable again.
alisoncrossjones 