It seems as if people have their priorities mixed up when the holidays come around.
Instead of looking forward to spending time with family and friends, they’re anticipating Black Friday and or the gifts they’ll be receiving for Christmas.
A family member of mine is a good example. A few years ago, this family member said: “Why should I get them two presents when they’re only going to give us one?”
Let’s talk about gift giving and when the task became less fun for others and more aggravating.
I for one, enjoy buying or making people gifts and seeing the look on their face because I made them smile or laugh. Let me explain, gifts aren’t supposed to be given because you have to, they’re supposed to be given because you care.
One should think about how the gift they are giving will make the person happy. They shouldn’t think about how much money they’re ‘wasting’ because they’re spending money on someone else.
But while gifts are great, it’s not the point of the holiday. It was great when I was a kid but now that I’m older, I appreciate the experiences more than the gifts.
It can be hard acting like you’re happy to see everyone you don’t really like.
I know there are people out there that have bad family relationships and these get-togethers can be uncomfortable for some.
Being raised in a family-oriented environment, I’ve learned that while family isn’t always the best, there will always be those special moments in your life that you could only share with the family.
For example, every year my family gets together and decorates the house. We make sure to pick a day where everyone is free and we take time out of our busy schedules to decorate together.
We also try to make it a tradition to go to ‘Christmas in the Park’ in San Jose every December.
My family loves to see the different lights and decorations they have in the park and we love to listen to the band they have playing ever year.
Recently, I’ve been extending the invitation to my extended family, my cousin to be exact, and so far it’s been twice as fun.
Another thing we do every year is the getting together of my extended family every Christmas at someone’s house.
We have a potluck where we all bring food and share stories about our year. Most of the night consists of laughter and games.
The reason why I feel so strongly about the holiday spirit is because a little less than ten years ago, we lost one of our uncles and ever since then, the Christmas spirit at our parties have shrunken.
He was the epitome of holiday spirit and the years following his death was hard.
We even stopped doing our holiday tradition of karaoke. Recently, however, I’ve seen the Christmas spirit rise again with the birth of my nephew.
Our family was doing traditions again that we haven’t done in a while, like karaoke and the youngest of the family passing out the presents as “Santa.”
I’ve learned that you can get through anything with family.
The decorating of the house, the time spent with your family, those are the things we should be focusing on this holiday season, not the amount of money you spent on someone’s gift.
