I'm Canceling Christmas...kind of
Yesterday I sent an email to my family asking if we can look at other options this year for Christmas... becauseeee...I AM SICK OF CHRISTMAS!!
Yep, I said it..sick of Christmas!! How can I be sick of Christmas you ask...we let me start by saying that I am not sick of...
...family, fun, fireplaces, coffee, coffee cake and pastries on Christmas morning, family visiting, visiting family, the glow of a Christmas tree, Christmas songs, Chevy Chase's National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, making a gingerbread house with my family, my kids home for a week (ok, sort of that one), Christmas lights, poinsettias, Christmas decorations, wreaths, church, God, Bethlehem, the three Wisemen, Jesus, frankincense, myrrh, Joseph, Mary....
"What?" you ask..."What are those last few things I am not sick of?" Oh, those are the "real" things we are suppose to be celebrating...
Ok, so here is what I am sick of....
Scotch tape, wrapping paper (especially the cheap crap that rips when you try and wrap a box), shopping, lines, bad return policies, stores, check-out clerks that "can't wait to get out of here..." the Post Office, shipping, postage, Priority Mail, insurance on packages, people that kill people at Malls because they are pissed at Christmas, snow and strollers in parking lots at Malls, wrapping gifts on the floor and being unable to stand-up for an hour, Christmas package labels, hiding gifts, having "20 things I still need to buy"... and all this is going to be the next month of my life. Kill me now, please...(kidding scary mall person).
Please tell me what any of THAT has to do with love or family or how much you love me or my kids? Please tell me what Santa and the mall and Wal-mart and Best Buy has to do with spirit and peace and Jesus? Please tell me how me buying you a watch is going to make your life better, make you know I like you, make your day? Please tell me how any of this has anything to do with anything? Please!
I don't want you to tell me you need small leather black gloves from Macy's that can be found in the back of the store on clearance this week. Please do not tell me that your kid needs a new do-hicky to go with that thing that YOU bought him for his birthday....oh and could you please send a gift receipt "just in case." Really?
I don't need anything, and if I do, I will buy it...oh, and if I can't afford it, I don't NEED IT! Last time I checked nobody bought me groceries or paid my mortgage or gas bill. You buying me something and shipping it alllll the way here does not tell me you love me, it tells me you have been busy running around the mall looking for something to buy me as if you have nothing better to do with your time. Here's an idea, SAVE YOUR MONEY AND COME VISIT! THAT, IS CHRISTMAS!!!
So anyway, I sent an email suggesting that we give to one of two charities www.worldvisiongifts.org or www.stjude.org. With World Vision Gifts you can spend $100 and give a community a gaggle of animals to use for food, farming, eggs, milk, etc. St. Jude's hospital treats children with cancer and NO CHILD IS EVER TURNED AWAY BECAUSE THEY CAN'T AFFORD TREATMENT. Can we say Christmas!!! No tape, no mall and no lines. Oh, and someone besides me actually benefits!!
I had a great childhood with Christmas and I can tell you I liked my banana-seat bike, my "boom box" radio, my "fur" jacket from my Grandpa Burge and my Born in the USA tape. Those are the GIFTS that I remember. Other than that I remember Egg Nog, pastries on Christmas morning, Grandpa Burge visiting in his overcoat and hat, these weird blow up elves that showed up Christmas morning and then disappeared Christmas night, visiting my Grandpa Mo Christmas Eve, our glowing Christas tree, Christmas eve at my dads (but not the gifts...except for the roller skates I got one year).
I'm not saying NO gifts, I'm just saying SHIT'S GETTIN OUT OF HAND!!
So I DO get it, kids like the excitement of Christmas and all that goes into it. Perhaps I am just getting old and jaded, who knows. I do know that this year each one of my children are going to "pick" a child that was born on their birthday to sponsor. I want them to stop being an endless black whole of need (and greed). I want them to realize that what they have does not make them who they are, it just makes them the owner of more crap.
My kids will not do without this Christmas so you can put down the phone before you start dialing the Department of Children and Family Services. Trust me, you would die if you saw their wardrobes. I just think that IN ADDITION to getting, we need to start looking at giving, start looking at solving the problem of this generation's need to CONSUME. Their need to have the next cell phone and the next pair of shoes and the next THING that the TV tells them they just "have to have..."
I just want to show them that the FEELING that they will get when they know they have helped a community in Africa, or a child in Brazil, or a family in the United States is just as satisfying as getting ONE more anything. I want them to know the feeling of SATISFACTION, not just SATURATION. I want them to know that when they....here ya go...focus...
WHEN THEY STOP THINKING THERE'S NOT ENOUGH TO GO AROUND, WHEN THEY STOP THINKING ABOUT HOLDING ON TO EVERYTHING, GETTING EVERYTHING, KEEPING EVERYTHING FOR THEMSELVES...THEY WILL ACTUALLY END UP WITH MORE.
When we focus on "not having enough" we never will have enough. When we realize there is plenty, there will always be plenty. Our focus becomes our reality, if we can change our focus and our children's focus then they will always have plenty, always be wealthy, always be satisfied. When we teach to "get," then the need to get is never satisfied. When we teach to give, there will always be something to give, thus, they will always have too much.
I want my children to have "too much," because then there is always plenty for everyone.
Click COMMENTS to leave a comment!!!
Yep, I said it..sick of Christmas!! How can I be sick of Christmas you ask...we let me start by saying that I am not sick of...
...family, fun, fireplaces, coffee, coffee cake and pastries on Christmas morning, family visiting, visiting family, the glow of a Christmas tree, Christmas songs, Chevy Chase's National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, making a gingerbread house with my family, my kids home for a week (ok, sort of that one), Christmas lights, poinsettias, Christmas decorations, wreaths, church, God, Bethlehem, the three Wisemen, Jesus, frankincense, myrrh, Joseph, Mary....
"What?" you ask..."What are those last few things I am not sick of?" Oh, those are the "real" things we are suppose to be celebrating...
Ok, so here is what I am sick of....
Scotch tape, wrapping paper (especially the cheap crap that rips when you try and wrap a box), shopping, lines, bad return policies, stores, check-out clerks that "can't wait to get out of here..." the Post Office, shipping, postage, Priority Mail, insurance on packages, people that kill people at Malls because they are pissed at Christmas, snow and strollers in parking lots at Malls, wrapping gifts on the floor and being unable to stand-up for an hour, Christmas package labels, hiding gifts, having "20 things I still need to buy"... and all this is going to be the next month of my life. Kill me now, please...(kidding scary mall person).
Please tell me what any of THAT has to do with love or family or how much you love me or my kids? Please tell me what Santa and the mall and Wal-mart and Best Buy has to do with spirit and peace and Jesus? Please tell me how me buying you a watch is going to make your life better, make you know I like you, make your day? Please tell me how any of this has anything to do with anything? Please!
I don't want you to tell me you need small leather black gloves from Macy's that can be found in the back of the store on clearance this week. Please do not tell me that your kid needs a new do-hicky to go with that thing that YOU bought him for his birthday....oh and could you please send a gift receipt "just in case." Really?
I don't need anything, and if I do, I will buy it...oh, and if I can't afford it, I don't NEED IT! Last time I checked nobody bought me groceries or paid my mortgage or gas bill. You buying me something and shipping it alllll the way here does not tell me you love me, it tells me you have been busy running around the mall looking for something to buy me as if you have nothing better to do with your time. Here's an idea, SAVE YOUR MONEY AND COME VISIT! THAT, IS CHRISTMAS!!!
So anyway, I sent an email suggesting that we give to one of two charities www.worldvisiongifts.org or www.stjude.org. With World Vision Gifts you can spend $100 and give a community a gaggle of animals to use for food, farming, eggs, milk, etc. St. Jude's hospital treats children with cancer and NO CHILD IS EVER TURNED AWAY BECAUSE THEY CAN'T AFFORD TREATMENT. Can we say Christmas!!! No tape, no mall and no lines. Oh, and someone besides me actually benefits!!
I had a great childhood with Christmas and I can tell you I liked my banana-seat bike, my "boom box" radio, my "fur" jacket from my Grandpa Burge and my Born in the USA tape. Those are the GIFTS that I remember. Other than that I remember Egg Nog, pastries on Christmas morning, Grandpa Burge visiting in his overcoat and hat, these weird blow up elves that showed up Christmas morning and then disappeared Christmas night, visiting my Grandpa Mo Christmas Eve, our glowing Christas tree, Christmas eve at my dads (but not the gifts...except for the roller skates I got one year).
I'm not saying NO gifts, I'm just saying SHIT'S GETTIN OUT OF HAND!!
So I DO get it, kids like the excitement of Christmas and all that goes into it. Perhaps I am just getting old and jaded, who knows. I do know that this year each one of my children are going to "pick" a child that was born on their birthday to sponsor. I want them to stop being an endless black whole of need (and greed). I want them to realize that what they have does not make them who they are, it just makes them the owner of more crap.
My kids will not do without this Christmas so you can put down the phone before you start dialing the Department of Children and Family Services. Trust me, you would die if you saw their wardrobes. I just think that IN ADDITION to getting, we need to start looking at giving, start looking at solving the problem of this generation's need to CONSUME. Their need to have the next cell phone and the next pair of shoes and the next THING that the TV tells them they just "have to have..."
I just want to show them that the FEELING that they will get when they know they have helped a community in Africa, or a child in Brazil, or a family in the United States is just as satisfying as getting ONE more anything. I want them to know the feeling of SATISFACTION, not just SATURATION. I want them to know that when they....here ya go...focus...
WHEN THEY STOP THINKING THERE'S NOT ENOUGH TO GO AROUND, WHEN THEY STOP THINKING ABOUT HOLDING ON TO EVERYTHING, GETTING EVERYTHING, KEEPING EVERYTHING FOR THEMSELVES...THEY WILL ACTUALLY END UP WITH MORE.
When we focus on "not having enough" we never will have enough. When we realize there is plenty, there will always be plenty. Our focus becomes our reality, if we can change our focus and our children's focus then they will always have plenty, always be wealthy, always be satisfied. When we teach to "get," then the need to get is never satisfied. When we teach to give, there will always be something to give, thus, they will always have too much.
I want my children to have "too much," because then there is always plenty for everyone.
Click COMMENTS to leave a comment!!!
AAAAMMMMEEENNNN!!!!!!! :) Tammy
ReplyDelete