As yet another year draws to a close and holiday time is in full swing, tradition (and social media) paints a glorious picture of happy families gathered around large, beautifully adorned trees, an abundance of gifts and full bellies of delicious food. Lest we forget, there’s nothing more festive than Mariah Carey belting out ‘All I want for Christmas is You‘ on repeat for weeks on end!
While this may be the case for many families, the stress we place on ourselves over the holiday season can be all too much at times and can take the happy out of Holidays. Be it missing loved ones who are not with us at a time orientated around family togetherness or the large financial strain of the whole season of giving, debt should not be number 1 when making your list and checking it twice.
Call me a bit of a Christmas Grinch, but I definitely fit into the bracket of finding the season a little stressful. I’m not talking Valium inducing levels, but it’s hard to pin point what causes my normally low blood pressure to rise at this time of the year – is it the constant talk of expectant presents? The endless shopping and stockpiling as everyone prepares for some kind of apocalypse with stores closing for just one day? Is it the over spending you get swept up in to keep up with the Jones to ensure your kids have every gadget and gizmo under the tree on the morning of the 25th when really you’re struggling to keep up with mortgage and car payments, let alone top up your savings fund? Or just missing family thousands of miles away? I don’t know the answer, but the older I get and now with having children myself, I’m desperately trying to find my inner Christmas spirit.
Having grown up in a sunny climate in South Africa, Christmas takes on a rather different view than the usual images that conjure up the festive period – it’s different – not better, not worse, just different. And don’t knock a warm Christmas til you’ve tried it! Yes, Santa made the journey down South (poor old Santa must have been sweating his socks off in mid summer heat!), we had presents under the bright green, ornament adorned Christmas tree, decorations a plenty and extended family gathered around a hot roast dinner with all the trimmings. It was a happy and family orientated time spent with grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. And I loved it.
Money wasn’t tight but it also wasn’t in excess, my parents were hard working with 3 kids in excellent schools, extra mural activities which were an additional expense, a mortgage to pay and saving for our tertiary education. Looking back there was more thought to our gifts as to what was needed prior to the start of the new school year – oh the excitement of getting new Colleen crayons (only South Africans will truly understand how exciting it was to have them!). With school only going back in mid January, Christmas was long forgotten and there was no comparing of what gifts you had, or hadn’t, received. I recently read an article about the stress of needing to purchase expensive gifts for kids to ensure they weren’t bullied when they got back after the Christmas break. What has the world come to? Has it just gone too far?
The bottom line was we didn’t go into debt over ensuring we got the latest gadget just so you didn’t get bullied because you received a coloring-in book (and let’s not forget the crayons!) as a gift. I am fervently in the corner of less is more – and as parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, godparents, friends etc we are ALL to blame for not adhering to this.
Christmas is no less magical for not getting that expensive gift which you know will be discarded, broken or lost in no time at all. Or is it? Is it all just about excess – in all sense of the word – endless presents, extra portions of Christmas dinner and an excessively large credit card bill…not to mention a bulging waist line struggling to fit into leggings come New Year? So call me a grinch, and I’m desperately trying to become more festive and fun for my daughter’s sake, but I’d prefer not to be in debt over one day of the year when times are tough for everyone.
The Hill Country Mom 