Christmas was once solely a celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ and the ultimate gift God gave us: grace and forgiveness of our sins through Jesus. In this day and age, however, it’s done a complete reversal. While in some Christian circles this is still accepted, most others view Christmas through a materialistic lens. Christmas has become less about honoring Jesus’s birth and more about what is sitting under the tree.
Take this example, one that many parents are familiar with: training their children to say thank you for a gift that they might not like. It’s become a common sight to see a child in tears on Christmas morning—not out of gratitude but because they did not get the specific gift they wanted.
Stores and companies are a huge reason for this. They begin advertising Christmas as if it’s a marketing tool to bring in many customers and have succeeded in making Christmas a tool for raising profits. This grows the overall idea that now families often feel pressured to measure love by the number or cost of gifts. It becomes easy to forget that Christmas didn’t start at a shopping mall but in a humble manger.
When Christmas is reduced to presents, brand names, and price tags, it changes the whole reason behind why we celebrate Christmas. It makes it so the season of giving slowly transforms into a season of expecting.
Now, materialism hasn’t taken away the true meaning of Christmas entirely—as a culture, we still value family, friends, and the spirit of giving during the holiday season. However, the view of Christmas has deteriorated to a time to give gifts and nothing else.
If Christmas is to be celebrated as it was intended, there must be a return to its roots. When everyone came together to highlight and honor the gift that God bestowed upon humanity, rather than measuring joy by what was wrapped under a tree.
It’s not that presents aren’t good or that we should stop giving them, but that their purpose must be remembered and taught to others. When people focus more on gifts over gratitude and on receiving something over giving to others, the purpose of the holiday becomes blurred. Christmas was never meant to be about what we receive, but about what was given.
