What Would Jesus Buy?

[SanFranciscan]

I have been watching the movie "What Would Jesus Buy?" in which the narrator says that most of us view Christmas with more dread than anticipation and yet still go through the motions of Christmas cheer. I do not want to turn this into a religious discussion so that we may all get along as much as possible. Yet I found that statement to be so sad, I would like to take a poll here.

Do you look forward to and enjoy Christmas or is it something that you dread but don't feel that you can skip?

 

[disykat]

Other than my children's birthdays, I view most gift giving occasions with dread. We keep that part of Christmas pretty low key and would certainly have it even lower key if extended family didn't absolutely insist on exchanging gifts.

Too much stuff that ends up going to waste IMO. I love Christmas, just not the gift exchanging part.

 

[autumnpalm]

I love Christmas.

For me, it is not about giving gifts or making the perfect stuffing or worrying about guest lists and party dresses. I choose not to let it be about commercial greed and I don't celebrate out of tradition, obligation or anything else. I know you don't want to this to be an explicitly religious thread so I won't go into too many details, but for me, Christmas is something I look forward to with joy, thanksgiving and celebration- never dread.

 

[FireDancer]

I love Christmas but it has very little to do with presents for me. I like the decorations, music (in moderation), parties, events, and generally being with friends and family. I literally buy 4 gifts, one for my nephew, one for a close friend's son, and one for my mom and grandma. The gift part of Christmas isn't that big for me. My brothers and I have stopped exchanging and none of my friends and I do.

 

[laurie31]

I love Christmas.

For me, it is not about giving gifts or making the perfect stuffing or worrying about guest lists and party dresses. I choose not to let it be about commercial greed and I don't celebrate out of tradition, obligation or anything else. I know you don't want to this to be an explicitly religious thread so I won't go into too many details, but for me, Christmas is something I look forward to with joy, thanksgiving and celebration- never dread.

Well-said!

We are pretty drama-free, so we don't have any crazy unrealiztic family expectations, and we are pretty low-key on gifts too (except for Santa for the kids, and that's scaled back a lot now that they're older). You can let the season be overwhelming if you let it, but you don't have to let it!

Aside from the religious celebration (which we try to focus on) I also love the baking, the music, the parties, getting together with family, driving around looking at decorations, and decorating our own house. I do these things from joy, not obligation. If someone isn't getting joy from celebrating Christams, or whatever it is they're celebrating (birthday, other holiday), then maybe they need to sit down and think about what they're doing and why. No one is MAKING anyone celebrate anything! Why do people do that to themsevles?

 

[allison443]

Well-said!

We are pretty drama-free, so we don't have any crazy unrealiztic family expectations, and we are pretty low-key on gifts too (except for Santa for the kids, and that's scaled back a lot now that they're older). You can let the season be overwhelming if you let it, but you don't have to let it!

Aside from the religious celebration (which we try to focus on) I also love the baking, the music, the parties, getting together with family, driving around looking at decorations, and decorating our own house. I do these things from joy, not obligation. If someone isn't getting joy from celebrating Christams, or whatever it is they're celebrating (birthday, other holiday), then maybe they need to sit down and think about what they're doing and why. No one is MAKING anyone celebrate anything! Why do people do that to themsevles?

I agree!
I love buying gifts for people.

 

[NHdisneylover]

I love Christmas too. I like the decorations, the foods, the music, etc. I also like shopping for gifts--but we have no "must do such and such" people to deal with. I buy gifts because i want to--because I see something someone I know would love or would find funny or whatever. Some years that means I buy a lot of gifts and other years only a couple. There is no keeping score or trying to be all equal in our family so that is okay (note: we do keep things equalish among the kids, meaning I will buy something for each of the nieces an nephews every year and of about the same value and for my own kids they get one big item from Santa, one from us and one for birthdays each--though some years DD ends up with very expensive stuff and DS does not and other years it is the other way around--they never bother to compare costs).

 

[PrincessBelle09]

I love Christmas. I love buying gifts for my immediate family. Since I got married though, Christmas has started to become a hassle. I've decided that this year, I am buying presents for my husband, mom, dad, sister, in-laws, and that is it. It's the gift giving to extended family that I only see at holidays, and only to exchange gifts, that gets me down. I'm simply not doing it this year.

 

[polkadotsuitcase]

I adore Christmas! The season just feels great.

The present thing, though, can get hairy some years. Overall, we'll get things for the kids and maybe for each other (although some years, like this one, the "gifts" were during the year -- new a/c, plumbing repair, auto repair, new dishwasher, etc.). My parents are happy just to spend time with us, and truly do not WANT or NEED anything. We don't buy for our siblings -- or maybe just a family gift card to a restaurant. The remaining family members...we'll get a list of what they want, and choose off of it.

I do think the season can be hard on some people who feel the pressure more than others, or who have expectations that can't possibly be met.

 

[Nancyg56]

I love Christmas but it had gotten very stressful for me. My family got larger and it seemed that I was spending way too much time and money shopping for gifts just to make sure that everyone was happy. I decided that I was going to cut way back on the gift giving aspect and focus more on the family aspect. Turnes out they all wanted that as well.

I buy one gift for my children and their spouses and DH and I usually exchange a small gift. We focus on the little ones after that. There are a few neighbors who we are close to and I make wine and handpainted glasses for them.

I do decorate and bake so there is a Holiday feeling in our home and we always have an open home for the season. Christmas day we have a gift exchange thing that everyone likes but keep the $ amount to $25 so that no one needs to feel like they cannot participate. Anyone who brings a gift is in.

 

[pixie dust 112]

I love Christmas. I love buying for people, love that religious and non religious Christmas traditions!

 

[Rora]

I love Christmas.

For me, it is not about giving gifts or making the perfect stuffing or worrying about guest lists and party dresses. I choose not to let it be about commercial greed and I don't celebrate out of tradition, obligation or anything else. I know you don't want to this to be an explicitly religious thread so I won't go into too many details, but for me, Christmas is something I look forward to with joy, thanksgiving and celebration- never dread.

This this this!!

 

[FlightlessDuck]

I enjoy Christmas.

I did not enjoy that movie.

 

[olwyngdh]

I love Christmas....the sights, the smells, the sounds all fill me with joy. I even love shopping in crowded stores I enjoy buying gifts for people more than I enjoy receiving them--it is like a great big scavenger hunt and my reward at the end is the look of surprise and happiness on someone's face when I have found the perfect thing for them.

We have many Christmas Traditions in both my husbands family and my own, and we manage to hit most of them every year--not all, but we try--if we miss something one year, there is always the next, and we swap things around. This year, with new cats, my 100 yr old ornaments are not going on the tree, but I will be able to hold them and have the memories of my mother and grandmother that are attached to them flood through me before I pack them away again.

 

[luvmy3]

I love Christmas, the whole Holiday Season is my favorite time of year. I love decorating and baking. I love how excited teh kids get the closer it comes, I love visiting my family though out the season, I love having friends over and going to Christmas parties. I don't love shopping during the season, but I love how festive all the store/malls are and I love giving gifts, and I love watching my kids open their gifts on Christmas morning because to them its magical (even though 2 out of my 3 don't believe). We celebrate secular Christmas and I love every minute of it

 

[Buckalew11]

I used to dread Christmas. It was stressful and I felt pressured to buy gifts for practically everyone I knew who was breathing. Then, one Christmas, I stopped. I informed my sisters and others that I wasn't doing it anymore and since that time, Christmas is more about what it should be for me.

I do not even buy for my nieces and nephews. I have them over for dinner and movie and play games. It is a wonderful time of enjoying each other.

I scaled down on my decorating, only doing what I really enjoy doing and putting out what I really love.
I love the baking and the sharing aspect. Parties with friends and cantatas at church

 

[bicker]

This really can (and should) be viewed as a matter of gift-giving in general, versus giving the gift of being together. Folks caught up in materialism (as most of us are, myself very much included in that) find far too much value in getting "things" and place way too little priority on spending time sharing experiences with family members.

An example... my wife got me a Kindle for my birthday. (The birthday is next week; the gift-giving was this past weekend. My wife couldn't wait. ) However, just this morning she commented on how much she regretted never having the opportunity to watch a Space Shuttle launch together with me. (She lived on the Space Coast for thirty years, and had seen dozens of launches from her patio.) Now, a special trip to that area would have cost more than the Kindle, but put the Kindle together with a few other gifts she got me over the past year, and it would have been close-enough - and that irreplacable experience of sharing something special together would perhaps have been better than a device that I'll end up using mostly myself.

 

[jrmasm]

Jesus doesn't buy present, Santa does.

 

[Tinkermommy]

Count me in with loving Christmas.

It's not about the buying/getting for me. I love just about everything connected to Christmas.

I can't wait to put up our tree. We buy ornaments from our travels and other special occasions so just putting the tree up (we do it as a family) gets us talking about all the fun we have together.

Putting up our manger scene is also a big part of the season. Both of my kids are always wanting to hold Baby Jesus!

It also makes me more mindful of those that don't have as much as we do and we usually "adopt" several children or elderly people to make their Christmas a little brighter.

For me the season holds a lot of magic and I see plenty of others that share this feeling as well.

 

[SanFranciscan]

I enjoy Christmas.

I did not enjoy that movie.

I enjoyed some parts of the movie. I would not travel around the country hollering at people like that minister and his followers did. I do feel a longing for small-town America as described, or perhaps just romanticized, in the movie. Maybe what I am nostalgic for is the way that we NEVER were.