Christmas for most people is the most enjoyable holiday of the year. The problem with this holiday is that people don’t love it for the right reasons anymore. If you asked a group of people what their favorite part of Christmas is, most would respond “receiving presents.” A small portion would answer “giving presents.” We over indulge ourselves in the gifts we get while completely forgetting that others are receiving nothing.

Based on a survey I took, a vast majority of our school gets Christmas presents each year valued at $300 or more.  We expect our parents to spend hundreds of dollars on another pair of Converse we don’t need. It doesn’t matter if your family has money or not, you shouldn’t need $300 spent on your presents. So maybe your family is financially well off and your parents can afford to spend the money, wouldn’t you rather give some of it to a person in need? Ask your parents if you can give that other $150 that’s being spent on a diamond necklace you will likely never wear to a kid in need of a single present under their tree.  If you happened to pick up an Angel Tree tag, you read that children in our community are requesting things like a haircut. We don’t realize how much we have. On a day we have made to focus on Christ and giving, we care much more about receiving.

I’m not going to lie, I am guilty of wanting everything. When I was in middle school, my sisters and I were getting at least $500 spent on us for Christmas through items like diamond earrings, UGGS, iPhones, and high end clothing were under our tree. I never gave friends, family, or even the needy a present. I never thought about how much my parents were spending on my presents or about the people who were going to receive nothing on Christmas. More than half of the items I opened were never looked at twice and they were placed under my bed for the rest of the year.

When high school hit, my parents saw little use for spending so much money on things we didn’t need. My parents decided my sister and I would get one big present each. I would go to a friend’s home and see at least 20 boxes under their tree with their name written on all of the boxes. Then I would go home and see my one box. Little did I know that my one box under the tree every year would mean more to me than all 20 of the boxes under someone else’s. I give more, think less about wanting, and have more sympathy for people who get nothing. The one present I receive each year isn’t thrown under a bed, it is cherished and has extreme importance to me.

All of us, wealthy or not, can think about how much we actually care about our new phones, shoes, jewelry, and cars. At the end of the day, people in our community received nothing for Christmas. Consider giving more than receiving this Christmas season.