Christmas was magical to me growing up, my parents pulled out all the stops to make this holiday feel special for all of their seven children. We would wake up to stockings stuffed full and presents stacked high under the tree. The older I got though, the more I saw how stressful this time was for my parents and other adults around me. This level of stress is something that I feel more and more as each year goes by. I think more about the pressure and the stress that parents and families feel to create Christmas magic for their children and loved ones, often worrying about finances the whole holiday season. Christmas can be a time of magic, but it can also we a time of extreme hardship for families with financial struggles, especially if they feel that they can not measure up to other families around them. It is not very often that we see media depicting the Christmas experience of poor families. Generally, all the Christmas representation that we see depicted in media is predominantly focused on wealthy, white, conventional families. The feeling of Christmas magic that I felt as a child is something that I would love my own children to be able to feel every Christmas during their childhoods as well, but I want that feeling of magic to have more meaning behind it than just that of rampant consumerism and overspending. I remember over hearing my parents arguing about finances around the holiday season, shouting about maxed out credit cards and how they could manage to make payments on time to avoid incurring even more debt than they already owed.
My family’s celebration of Christmas never treated Christmas as a religious holiday but rather as a time of togetherness and being grateful for who and what you have. This message sometimes did not come across though, as a selfish child it was hard to be grateful at times. It felt as though in a lot of ways my family was not as fortunate as other families around me seemed to be. I worried about things not being equal, that other children would have more than me, and would somehow feel happier or more fulfilled than I was because of this. I thought that other kids had more normal families than I did. But as I aged I started to realize that Christmas was not supposed to be like this, it is not meant to be a time of getting gifts and comparing what you have to what your peers have but rather a time to be thankful, a time to see your loved ones and a time for everyone to come together and give what they can to help all of those around them. Now when Christmas comes around, I try my best to help those around me rather than thinking of myself. I want everyone to be able to have a happy and joyful Christmas without having to stress so much about how they are going to make it all come together this year. I want to be there to help all of my loved ones as well as the community around me when it comes to Christmas time, because not everyone can do it all on their own, and they should not have to. More and more as the holiday season becomes commercialized, more burden is put on families to overbuy and overspend. I hope that in my lifetime we see Christmas and the holiday season become based around more family and community togetherness rather than this commercialization that we are seeing more and more of in the current day.
I think that the act of parents lying to their children about Santa Claus’ existence can be somewhat harmful in certain circumstances, mainly if the parents will keep insisting on the existence of Santa Claus’ once their child has begun questioning that existence. My parents personally really tried their hardest to keep up this ruse and I felt betrayed and lied to when I found out the truth about Santa Claus. I know that parents likely always have good intentions when it comes to teaching their children about figures such as Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, The Tooth Fairy and similar figures, but it can be somewhat damaging in my opinion when this turns into parents straight out lying to their children. The holidays are supposed to be a time of coming together with your family, loved ones and community, and I think that should be a lot more important than the commercialized aspects of the holidays. Throughout our whole lives, we are shaped by companies and advertisements to believe that these brands and products are part of Christmas, when really, they are just trying to turn a profit and they really do not care about the holiday or about the consumer.
Devin Gittlein
Definitely while growing older I’ve seen how stressful the holidays are for most adults in my life. At this point, I feel more pressure around the holidays because of the financial stress it can add on top of paying for school. As for most mainstream media about Christmas and other holidays portraying white, wealthy, and conventional families, that is very true and I never stopped to thoroughly consider it. My mom was an avid Hallmark Christmas movie watcher a couple years ago and I do recall most of the movies featuring upper class white couples/families. When people of color were portrayed, they too were upper class, so an entire group of people are not being shown in our popularized media. I agree with your idea that leading your kids into believing in Santa, the Easter bunny, the Tooth Fairy, et cetera is a bit weird and maybe harmful. I don’t really understand why a huge portion of Americans still tell their kids that these characters exist. I think that holiday “magic” can be created through feelings of joy and gratefulness, rather than mystical immortal figures.