How over-consumption is trying to ruin your Christmas
What’s the true meaning of Christmas, Charlie Brown?
There is so much joy floating through the air as people put their Christmas lights up and engage in yearly family traditions.
Yet, somehow, I still feel an insane amount of pressure to spend, spend, and SPEND!
I open my phone, and my email inbox is full of Christmas promotions and sales that promise the buyer never-ending happiness. My social media feed is full of people recording their “Holiday rituals and hauls,” where they link to products that somehow have become essential in their lives.
My messages are full of friends asking how I’ve been doing or asking whether I’ll be making it to their Christmas gift-exchange parties. (I feel the pressure to find the perfect gift for my Secret Santa and am still regretting what I got them😭.)
I put my phone down, leaving their messages unread, and walk to my living room, where my little sisters are watching a Christmas movie. The scene shows Kevin’s family in Home Alone 2 opening the gifts on Christmas morning. I think of all the shopping I still need to do, and the parking I still need to find outside the store.
I start having an inner monologue: Do we have wrapping paper? YES! Now, where did we leave the tape? Wait…I don’t think we have tape…
My dad asks me what I would like for Christmas.
”Moving boxes and bubble wrap…although if you happen to sneak in a spa massage, it wouldn’t hurt,” is what I want to answer.
“Just a gift card is ok,” is what I end up saying.
The holiday craze has gotten out of hand, as you can’t even park at a Walmart without driving three times around the entire lot.
There are a lot of Peanuts and Snoopy decorations on store shelves during this time of year. In other years, I have just mindlessly accepted that they are just standard Christmas characters like Santa or The Grinch. Somehow, this year, I have had a memory flash of the old “Charlie Brown Christmas Special”. I haven’t seen it in a while, if I am honest…
In case you don’t remember
In the cartoon, Charlie Brown has a dilemma with the Christmas season because everyone around him seems more preoccupied with the material aspect of it. When his friends are putting on a Christmas play about the birth of Christ, none of them are feeling the “Christmas spirit”.
To try and repair that vibe, Lucy sent Charlie Brown to buy a grand Christmas tree, to get everyone into their characters.
Charlie Brown decides to go for a tree that’s … not so grand. When his friends see it, they bully him, and Charlie Brown explodes in desperation. ”Can anyone tell me the real meaning of Christmas?” Linus then quotes a passage from the Bible describing the birth of Jesus, which brings a smile of hope to Charlie Brown. (The rest of the cartoon ensues, but this part is the one that stuck with me the most.)
As a Christian, I agree that the true meaning of Christmas is to celebrate the birth of our Savior.
Christmas is to celebrate that there is hope for humanity.
Christmas is a yearly reminder that, despite our monotonous jobs, everyday problems, and global tensions, there’s a hope that we have a chance for happiness and joy.
Those emotions are powerful, which is why big corporations have centered on them and used them to make money. They have used the hope and joy and replaced them with the pressure of finding “the right gift”.
I know I’ve had to check myself this year more than other years, just because I know I felt that pressure and lost the initial hope of the Christmas season.
Taking a moment to step back and remember what the real meaning of Christmas is has brought peace to my heart.
I’m not here to preach to you… I’m just inviting you not to let yourself buy into the lie that you have to buy gifts that will be forgotten by February.
I want to remind you that, despite whatever hard thing you are going through right now, there is hope for you. Things will get better, and you will find joy in your life once more.
Sending you an extra big hug,
-Cristina 💐