“Sleigh bells ring, are you listening, in the lane, snow is glistening”….now wait just a damn minute, can someone tell me why this was piping through the mall as I walked around looking for a dress to wear to the ballet? It’s hardly past Halloween, Thanksgiving hasn’t even passed yet and already we are already having Christmas marketing shoved in our faces? It disgusts me.

I know Christmas for most people has turned into a day of mass consumerism, but do we really need it shoved in our faces so early? Almost months before the Holyday, killing what little meaning it has left? We as a nation have become brainwashed and turned into shopping zombies this time of year. The sales mean nothing because right after that one there will be another one that is better then the previous one thus brining you back to buy more crap.

I say, my fellow Christmas celebrators, we take the Holyday back! Don’t spend mass amounts of money in the malls or at the big box stores. Don’t buy into the fact that you need to spend 300 dollars on each member of your family. Set a limit, have everyone get each person one gift. Or you can do what my home girls and I do. It’s kind of like a secret Santa type thing. We put our names in a hat and pick one person who we get to buy a gift for but there is a price limit of 20 bucks, then we get everyone else a gift that has a limit of 1 dollar. It works out well and it’s really a lot of fun going on the hunt for 1 dollar gifts. It makes the Holyday more meaningful when you take time to think about what you give and you have a cap on what you can spend.

So my friends this Holyday season don’t go blowing all your hard earned cash on meaningless gifts, don’t buy into the marketing of Christmas as a time to spend, spend, spend. Make it a time to think about your loved ones and what would truly make them happy you might be surprised how little it takes to bring a true smile to someone’s face.