Just recently I watched a news video on TV showing a person stealing a Christmas Tree,  if that doesn’t score an all-time low for the season,  gangs are targeting bus riders and drivers for their Christmas bonuses in Central American.  The Toys for Tots and Salvation Army collection bins are being robbed. We read about homes and cars being burglarized and the contents many being Christmas gifts are being stolen. The holiday crime stats show criminals are robbing and stealing more than ever.  Many of the culprits feel so pressured to provide gifts for their loved ones that they resort to theft.

I wonder what would happen if we stopped giving each other gifts for Christmas? Would this help prevent attacks on innocent people and theft during the Christmas holiday?

The over-commercialization of Christmas on television, print, and the Internet help fuel the criminal activity because many people,  especially children are so excited about receiving gifts.  Advertisements run day and night about many new products and create these desires.  Family and friends have grown accustomed to informing each other on which gift they expect for Christmas.

I was out shopping the other day and noticed a Christmas Tree dress on a mannequin. Although, I think it was just a display decoration for the holiday, because if it wasn’t who would wear such a thing?  It did reinforce my thoughts about how far our society has shifted and commercialized Christmas. Think for a moment, we buy a tree, all the decorations, ornaments, lights, stand, etc., then spend hundreds of dollars on gifts to pile under the tree. People overspend and many create debt on their credit cards that take months to pay-off.  Retailers spend millions on decorations, ads, and inventory for the holiday.

However, the holiday does provide some positive outcomes for many people and a great deal make a living on holiday retail sales.  As a matter of fact, some retailers only exist due to the holiday sales and jump-start their marketing campaigns early and skip right over the Thanksgiving holiday altogether to cash in early.  If that seems a little overzealous, you can actually find the popular after Thanksgiving shopping day Black Friday running multiple days. Just look at the recent sales posted by the online shopping giant Amazon last month. Early Monday after Thanksgiving, Jeff Bezos Amazon Founder and CEO was worth $99.6 billion, according to Forbes. By the opening bell, Bezos surpassed the $100 billion mark making him the richest man in the world, and Bezos made almost $2.4 billion on Black Friday alone. That’s Billion with a B! 2,400 million in one day. Wow!  I don’t think anyone has ever done that.  Makes one think about what will be spent on Christmas.

The Christmas gift of giving for many has been lost, stolen and overly commercialized along with the true meaning of Christmas.

As a society, we have created this monster holiday that manifests itself and feeds it’s growing appetite on the back of a lost Holy Day.

What if we just totally stopped giving each other expensive Christmas gifts altogether and started helping our fellow neighbor in kind acts?  We could spend a little time volunteering at local food shelter or church,  deliver food to the needy and elderly,  help with needed home repairs or purchase school supplies for unfortunate people.  We could lend a hand to a non-profit charity. Isn’t that the true meaning of Christmas? It would most certainly help stop the theft and focus more attention and help provide remedies to the neglected people in dire need. But I think most of all, it would be teaching our children good morals, which in return would be teaching our society to give rather than to take. I don’t know about you, but for me personally, I think that would be the best Christmas gift for all.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Contributed by: Martin Allred

A reblog from Martin Allred.