With the holiday season rapidly approaching, the pressure is on to show love and appreciation through gifts. Parents, family and friends rush to buy the coolest toys, cutest clothes and the most popular items for their loved ones. In the process of buying these gifts, however, great levels of stress can consume one’s mind. Determining what a family member or friend will like can make gift giving extremely difficult. The act of gift giving is too stressful because it takes away from the true purpose of the holiday season through outrageous prices, overwhelming emotions and even dangerous situations.
The purpose of the holidays is to enjoy time spent with family and to celebrate the true meaning of Christmas. When the days of Christmas break are spent focusing on what to buy for loved ones, the holiday’s religious and familial importance can be overlooked. Trying to find affordable gifts for family members makes it difficult to relax and spend quality time with loved ones. This stress can be greatly minimized with the pressure of gift giving being slightly lifted. Although giving gifts is a popular and common way to show appreciation, it has become one of the most important parts of the season. The act of giving gifts should be reduced compared to the time spent celebrating the birth of Jesus, enjoying Christmas and making memories with family.
When purchasing gifts for family members, one of the hardest parts can be finding affordable gifts that will be loved and used. Generally, people feel like the more money spent, the more appreciation there is to be shown. Many people have big families, which makes it difficult to stay in a specific price range while shopping for everyone’s gifts. Not being able to meet these price requirements can cause family members to feel bad about themselves and their financial situations. Shopping for people of different genders and ages that have separate interests can be entirely challenging as well.
During the holidays, stores are constantly packed and lines can form outside the door. With work and other activities, it can be difficult for some people to find time to go shopping. Stores may be closed, out of an item or have too long of a line. In addition to this, events such as Black Friday, Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday can create a dangerous aspect to the process of holiday shopping. People rush to get the best sales to start off the shopping season, which can lead to panic attacks, accidents, fights or other issues. Due to these extenuating circumstances, shopping can be dangerous and extremely demanding.
While gift giving can be stressful, it is generally the way people show love and appreciation to people during the holidays. Spending money to buy what loved ones want can be seen as a caring act. Despite how important people think exchanging gifts is, however, time spent with family and having fun during the holidays is far more valuable than any gift. Rather than spending money on gifts, recognizing the true meaning of Christmas and enjoying time together with friends and family can make for a cherished holiday season.
