A
female
age
30-35,
anonymous
writes:hia cupid has christmas become to commersialised? have we lost the real meaning of christmas??
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reader, anonymous, writes (3 December 2007): Too right it's too commercialised. As when a couple of years ago staff at Tesco were ordered to wear 'Happy Christmas' badges at the beginning of October. October is also the time when the TV commercials start to attract the kids' attention and bombard us with their wares.
Personally, I don't do a thing towards Christmas until December. I refuse to have my buying habits swayed by advertisements. I'm quite sure if they could get away with it they'd be advertising Christmas toys in August.
To most kids, Christmas is the time when everyone in their family buys them something, and these days it's usually a very expensive 'something' which takes precedence over the mortgage and takes until July to pay for. But I'm a tightwad and I'd sooner spend the money on myself, and my extended family do not get any charity from me. Grandchildren, for example, don't get in touch with grandparents until it's getting close to birthdays and Christmas. They don't see hide nor hair of them at any other time of year. Anyway, they probably earn more than their grandparents!
You only have to look at church attendance figures to realise that Christmas isn't what it used to be. We used to celebrate the birth of Christ and go out singing carols to the old folk in the community. The youth of today don't seem to do that anymore, unless there's a few quid in it for them by the end of the night, and they can never remember all the words anyway, if ever they knew them in the first place.
Bah Humbug!
Phil
A
female
reader, anonymous, writes (1 December 2007): Well don't get me wrong here cause I love Christmas and I love my mom who is a catholic. But I guess you have to ask yourself what really is the meaning of Christmas?? I know this is a touchy subject for some, but if you think about it, christianity has been imposed on much of the world for centuries. During the reign of the Roman Empire, citizens were obliged BY LAW to opress their true culture and religion and embrace christianity. In fact, heresy was illegal and would lead to death by sentence. Many jews and moors had to convert to christianity to avoid being killed during the spanish inquisition. Alot of people today celebrate christmas because their great great ancestors would have been killed if they didn't. So the fact that, for many, Christmas has become a secular celebration does not surprise me at all. I mean when you have something built on faulty foundations to begin with, you can't expect what survives of it to live on as rooted and unshakeable.
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reader, anonymous, writes (1 December 2007): As long as there is a celebrations, there's stratagies of marketing and promotional materials. People will always try and bring any occasion to their advantage and exploitation to increase their benefits by convincing and other manipulative techniques. Of course it's very commercialised. Society's ways. It's up to everyone what they understand of this holiday and how they choose to celebrate it. Some spend the pre-Christmas with neverending arrangements of the house for guests, trying to make all details appear exquisite and impeccable, forgetting the holiday does not mean perfection and even less, impressing the guests. This only produces stress and irritability. Others can't conceive holidays without train tickets and commodities. Many want to find the magic that all advertisements want to SELL, and others irregardless of the place or the decoration don't expect to find it elsewhere than in their minds and in the warmth of a family, preferably theirs to make it an ideal hypothesis. Some consider the commercialisation of Christmas to be a sacrilege, but I am sure it is not the companies! In the end, which is the "real" meaning? And how can one expect this to be TAUGHT (we've all heard "I want to teach my child the meaning of..." etc). It can be possible to an extent, AND provided that you don't impose your ideas, as you can't force anyone to believe in your meanings. Everyone should be content with their choices EVENTUALLY. There will always be people who try to speculate every occasion in their favour and to whom the "real meanings" are toys or festivities. Their choices.
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reader, calamitysil +, writes (1 December 2007):
 Christmas is not like it used to be, that's for sure! As a nation we've become very spoiled and we expect the best of everything, and we don't want to wait to save up for it either, so we buy like crazy on credit. Sadly Christmas becomes all about excess, even with food and booze already being marketed in October. But you know, you don't have to follow the masses. We have a lovely Christmas every year and keep it simple, baking biscuits and cakes and give them as presents, buy a nice roast and a bit of plonk. We have a real xmas tree and an arch on the window sill, that's it. My dogs enjoy the bones, we enjoy the food and then go for a lovely long walk, and hope for snow every year!
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reader, Fairy_Lu +, writes (1 December 2007):
 It means diffrent things to diffrent people, its the time of year where everything feels magical everyone seems nicer and everywhere looks great with lights and decorations but cherish this because in time i expect we wont be alloweed lights and to celebrate xmas for fear of upsetting non christians.When your younger it is all about the presents but when yougrow up it has more to do with family and you dont get botherd by the presents
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female
reader, babewithbrains +, writes (1 December 2007):
 Yes, I am quite sure that Christmas (or XMAS) has lost pretty much all christianity in it, for when you ask a child who reminds them most of christmas, and you show them a picture of a baby in a wooden box and a picture of a jolly-looking fat man in a fluffy red suit, they're bound to pick santa, because they know no better. Really, it's now just becoming a winter holiday, because of all the other religeons coming to britain (I am not being predudice) it seems that christmas has lost the feeling of "Let's celebrate the birth of our Saviour" because Jesus isn't the "Saviour" of some of the other religions, such as jedua and islam, and have you noticed when how people wake up on Christmas day and think "Ug. Holiday. Sleep" instead of "Yipee! Let's all go down to church and sing and be happy!"Hope you found this argument interesting,Good luck this christmas,HelixxxPS. I am an athiest, I am just stating some facts and theories.
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