With the Christmas and holiday season upon us, some of us begin to question what the true meaning of Christmas really is. If we don’t, maybe we should. I don’t have the definitive answer, but I am going to attempt to answer that question.
The meaning of Christmas is a cardboard box.
When we are small children, our loved ones spend a lot of their hard earned money on that newest, hard to find toy. It always seems that the box it came in is a lot more interesting than the actual gift. After the excitement of the opening of the gift is over, suddenly we have a pretend car or a new play house. We spend hours in our box, while the real gift has long been forgotten. From my personal experience, Kay-lyn would open her gifts so fast and not care for a second what the gift was. I could wrap ten empty boxes and she would have been just as happy. I’d just look at her with an endearing roll of the eyes.
Now, when we hit eight or 10, we look under the tree and wonder which big box is ours because we think that the bigger the box, the better the gift. At this point, we also want what every kid has, whether we actually really want it or not.
After the age of 10, the only thing we hope is that we didn’t get clothes or Grandma didn’t knit us slippers or a blanket, which were always to itchy to be comfy. (Miss and love you Grandma Metzger) And still, all of this comes in a box and we won’t know until Christmas morning what stuff our families thought we should have.
As adults, we become caught up in the shopping and the commercialization of the season. It is like we are brainwashed into spending money we sometimes don’t have, or should be spent on more important things. Then, we take all those receipts and put them in a box. Sometimes, we even wrap the box within another box in order to prevent our children from figuring out what’s in the box.
When we are buying our gifts this year it may be important to remember that the meaning of the gift is not in the dollar value but in the sentiment.
If you get someone a new, fancy electronic gadget but they can’t operate it, is that useful? A gift can be anything. Maybe an elderly neighbour can no longer shovel their driveway or buy groceries and so u give them a card with a message saying you can do both those things and not to worry. The point is, don’t buy gifts that don’t have meaning or sentiment. Choose to give with love, not expectations.
I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas and a joyous holiday season.
