Growing up in Africa with a family that didn’t celebrate Christmas, this time of year always seems to come faster than I expect.
One case in point is when I was at a popular coffee shop in Red Deer in November and noticed the company’s signature Christmas blend coffee was on sale. My immediate thought was how crazy they were to have purchased so much of the holiday stock so late after the last Christmas.
Of course the company was readying itself for one of its busiest times of the year.
This is how unaware I am of the holiday. I’m terrible at buying presents in advance and never know what a reasonable amount of spending is to occur when I do.
I tried handmade gifts once. Due to my craftsmanlike skills, it was the first and last effort at making something for a gift.
It’s in the last week leading up to Christmas that my scramble begins. I panic and struggle to find presents for friends and family. It’s not that I don’t want to celebrate or don’t want to buy presents, it’s that the focus is not paramount in my brain.
What does seem to stick, however, is the time I get to spend with family and friends.
Productivity in the workplace slows to a crawl as people seem to focus on others in their lives. It’s this part of Christmas that I love the most.
The focus, not on oneself, but on others sets the stage for a better month, and end of the year.
If there was a way to remove the overtly capitalist nature of the holiday then I think folks would be better off in the long run. What’s sad is that this time of the year, while it seems to bring out the best in people, also puts a whole lot of pressure on those who may not have family members to be with.
There appears to be this social pressure of being with family that is perpetuated in mainstream marketing. There is a good reason for this; people who are happy will buy things.
Putting out this perception of happiness and joy in order to maximize profits is the wrong motivation. From a company standpoint, however, increasing the bottom line in the last quarter is actually the right motivation.
But at some point, when do we look at all the gifts under the Christmas tree and ask ourselves if those items really matter.
Physical items are just that, physical, but being together with family or friends or with those who need some time to be with others, that is probably the best part of the holiday for me.
Don’t get me wrong. There’s no reason to feel guilty for being able to buy presents or accept presents from others or even to enjoy the time with your family.
What I’m suggesting is that maybe we need to find a way to reduce the focus on buying presents and move it to spending more time with family, and appreciating our time with them.