No Shopping Frenzy for Me

It's December and everything just spelled, smelled, and tastes like Christmas. It's funny but this year, it seems that despite the shopping malls screaming advertisements or decorations, the radio stations playing of Christmas songs, for most people, myself included, it seems as though it is just an ordinary day.

There's no feeling of anxiety, guilt and panic that I have not done any Christmas shopping yet - not even a Christmas list. For some reason, all this carnival feel around me seem to be just one big advertisement being displayed on TV. An ad which I chose not to pay attention to.

It could be that times are hard these days and people don't really have the means to be a part of this highly materialistic, commercialized fanfare. On the contrary, I do not feel like being religious either. There is just nothing that seem to jump out in me about the season anymore unlike when I was younger.

As a child Christmas is something that I look forward to every year, much like my birthday perhaps even more than my birthday. Celebration is optional on my birthday but Christmas' is more like compulsory. As early as January, I already begin to look forward to my next Christmas. But then my idea of Christmas as a child is no different than most of the adults I know now: gifts, food, party, no school/work, shopping, etc. It had always been the fanfare, almost carnival like concept of Christmas.

I had been told many times that Christmas is a celebration of Christ's birth. How our gift giving is derived from the magi giving him gifts, how our lanterns symbolize the stars the magi followed, etc. I think that most of us if not all of us who celebrate Christmas knew about this. And yet despite this knowledge, the shift in the celebration's center is inevitable.

People these days are more concerned about what they have and what they want to  have more. Sadly we have little care about how to acquire spiritual wealth or how to help other people.

It's Christmas all around me but I could hardly see myself celebrating as much as the rest of them are. If anything, I am not shopping at all fro Christmas presents but I would just like to spend as much time with my husband with no frivolous gifts just some quality time and loads of stories.