Here are contrasting videos that looking at Christmas from opposite views: Rudolph representing materialism and Ave Maria the spiritualism.
EDGEWATER -- Here we are in the joyous season of Christmas. I’ll tell you right off the bat that I am definitely a scrooge. I don’t mind celebrating Jesus’ birth which was the original idea behind this whole thing.
What I do mind is all the falderal that comes with the season. It wasn’t even Halloween yet and some stores already had their Christmas trees up and were starting to put out the usual wrapping paper, tape, cards and other supplies.
Somewhere along the line we lost what Christmas is for and made it into a money-grabbing and spending mad-rush to shop time. How did we get so greedy and have the nerve to make to distort such a holy day in this manner?
From childhood, we are brought up to believe in Santa and all the gifts. When I was young, we all grabbed a Sears toy catalog and started marking off our wants for our lists. We expected Santa to bring us everything and were disappointed if he missed something. When school began we were all full of stories about the gifts we got and the food we ate and sometimes the trips to Grandma’s we made, especially if we lived in the Northeast and she lived in a warm place like Florida.
Instead of celebrating Jesus, we as a society celebrate the almighty dollar. Shame on us! People who have a home, family, enough to eat and money to buy gifts forget that many do not have these luxuries. Those of us who prefer not to be part of the money grabbing holiday, don’t have someone to spend it with, or the money to buy gifts or food have no choice in the matter.
We are faced with it constantly. You can’t turn on a radio, television or computer without being bombarded with Christmas music, movies and emails. You can’t go into any store without being reminded by the decorations, Christmas music playing, the cashier wishing you a Merry Christmas or Happy Holiday (the latter which is now more accepted) and the ever-present bell ringer outside the door.
We are faced with it constantly. You can’t turn on a radio, television or computer without being bombarded with Christmas music, movies and emails. You can’t go into any store without being reminded by the decorations, Christmas music playing, the cashier wishing you a Merry Christmas or Happy Holiday (the latter which is now more accepted) and the ever-present bell ringer outside the door.
Even driving down the streets you are blasted with lawns covered in lights and lighted figures. If you work you have to put on your happy face as if you were enjoying all this and wish others a good holiday.
At least now that I am not working I can avoid that. When you have small children, it is fun to watch the awe in their faces when they see Santa or when they open their gifts or look at the light shows.
When you are grown and have no children around -- many like me -- we've done our share of shopping and spending and now it is time to stop.
I really feel we need to get back to the origin of the spirit of Christmas and stop with the materialism.
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