I already know that the majority of you will read the headline of this post and will most likely stop reading. However, for those of you who have the courage to continue reading, I want to share with you why I don’t believe buying Christmas gifts is wise or necessary. Don’t be scared – keep reading!
“Bah! Humbug!”
As Americans we are facing unprecedented financial and economic woes. More than half of all Americans can no longer make ends meet. Home foreclosures are still traumatizing many. Layoffs, unemployment and underemployment remain real problems for a significant portion of our society.
Yet, despite these very real and troubling issues, many Americans will cast aside reality to make unwise and unaffordable Christmas purchases. If the existence of clear and present financial difficulties is not reason enough to tear up those Christmas lists and shred your credit cards perhaps the following reasons will give you the courage to join me in saying bah hum bug:.
Reason No. 1: There is no Santa Claus
For more than 2,000 hours a year, the American worker toils away at a job that most of us dislike. The American worker works longer and takes fewer vacations than most workers of any “industrialized” nation. Many American workers either hate their job, the company they work for and/or their current occupation. Nonetheless, we grin and bear otherwise unpleasant situations because of our commitment to take care of our family. We are determined to provide our families with equal or better lives than what our parents were able to provide for us. We stay in the jobs that we do because of our resolve that our families will never have to worry about having a roof over their heads or food on the table.
Given the mental anguish and the physical toll that it takes on our lives to work for more than 2,000 hours each year in undesirable and dead-end jobs – the one day a year where we could be appreciated for our efforts – we mindlessly and eagerly give credit for all that we have done for our family to some obese dude. Yes, we give credit for all our efforts to an overweight stranger who wears the same red suit each and every year. (Under any other circumstances we would consider this quite creepy).
We perpetuate a make-believe story about a fat man who is most likely diabetic and a heart attack waiting to happen sliding down our chimneys once a year to do for our family in less than an hour what we work more than 2,000 hours a year to accomplish. We carry on this charade even when our homes have been foreclosed and we no longer have a chimney for the fat man to slide down.
We revel in the generosity of the portly man whose eating habits and obvious unhealthy lifestyle choices are but another example of the out of control U.S. healthcare crisis that makes insurance for millions unaffordable and is in part responsible for the inability of some businesses small and large alike to keep their doors open. We eat and spend like drunken fools during this time of the year throwing reason and caution to the wind in much the same way that our chubby visitor probably throws back six packs of soda, high sodium and fattening food. We behave as if we are celebrating and praising the fat guy for being our spiritual and health role model despite the fact that he has never once confessed a belief in or shown gratitude for a higher power nor has he ever participated in any form of exercise other than getting in and out of a sleigh.
You Might As Well Believe The Grinch Stole All The Christmas Gifts
http://youtu.be/ZgP0aUKlmNw
A land of capitalism and make-believe stories. This is how CHRISTmas in America is best described. But it shouldn’t nor does it have to be this way. Now is as good a time as any to put an end to the latest installment of consumerism and fairy tales gone wild.
“It is time to put an end to the fiction that someone else cares more about your children than you.”
It is high time to develop some new traditions – in particular one that communicates to your children that there is no human being on this earth who will do more for them in one night or make more sacrifices for their well-being throughout the year than you. It is time that you admit to your children that the reason your waist line keeps growing is that you are the person who annually eats the batch of freshly baked cookies they set out for Santa.
So this Christmas do your children and you a favor. Give your children the gift of the truth. Don’t let another year go by without letting them know that you work hard every day to keep the roof and chimney over their heads. Don’t mislead them into believing that there is a fat man in a red suit anywhere in the world who could slide down the chimney much less ever love them they way that you do.
Reason No. 2: The Second Reason That You Should Just Say No To Christmas Gifts
Are you buying Christmas gifts even though you have credit card debt? Do you have 6 months of your monthly living expenses saved in case of a family emergency?