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The artificial reality of Christmas

Somewhere around late September this year I did something a little strange; I stopped buying stuff for my kids. Of course I still bought groceries and household items for them, but not much else. I’m guessing I’m not the only one who does this.

Somewhere around late September this year I did something a little strange; I stopped buying stuff for my kids.

Of course I still bought groceries and household items for them, but not much else. I’m guessing I’m not the only one who does this. During the rest of the year, when the need arises or when I can’t think of a better reason not to buy something, I buy it. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not exceedingly rich. For now at least, the desires of my wife and children are relatively simple, so I rarely need to say no out of principle. There are a large number of retailers offering a large variety of items at competitive prices in convenient locations so I can almost never say I can’t find what they are asking for. But mostly I buy what I need because I have the means to do so. When Christmas is approaching, I still buy things, in fact I probably buy even more, but instead of giving them immediately to their intended recipients, I hold on to them so that I give them as gifts at the appropriate holiday occasion.

I do this for two reasons. The first is that selecting Christmas gifts is hard enough without having to compete with the recently acquired October, November and December purchases and so the items I give as gifts at Christmas will be appreciated that much more.

So what I am essentially doing is creating for my children an artificial reality where they don’t often get the stuff they want, so when they eventually do get something, it’s more valuable. When they get older, I may not be able to play these tricks on them. But this “don’t get much until Christmas” world isn’t such a theoretical place. It is the world I grew up in. This is the world I grew up in and it is almost certainly the world you grew up in.

But our parents didn’t do this to teach us lessons about value, the socio-economic situation at the time simply wouldn’t have allowed for our kind of on-demand lifestyle. In fact, our current world would have seemed artificial even a generation ago. Much of the world, now and throughout history, would have trouble imagining our “buy what you want when you want it” reality.

So, whereas once a gift was valued simply because it was a gift, we as gift-givers now often need to find ways of adding value to that gift. That might mean buying something from a place that is meaningful to the receiver or nurturing a bond with the receiver in other ways so the gift is seen an extension of that already valued relationship.

I am also struck by the other artificial reality of Christmas. Even with the declining presence of religious symbols and songs from public places during the lead up to holy day celebrations, aspects of the Christmas story still find their way into the malls, websites and olde town main streets where we do our shopping. At other times of the year, proclamations of peace and goodwill would seem out of place and calls for hope, caring and generosity would likely be ignored.

At Christmas, I’m sure even the least religious among us can welcome those sentiments. Despite the crowds and chaos we might experience, we can remember the turmoil people around the world suffer. Despite our desire to acquire more, we can appreciate those who have to go without. Despite the advertisers appeals to buy more and give more we can learn to be content to receive less.

So, this Christmas when you hear the bell ringing, when you see appeals for help, when you see opportunities to give, don’t hold back. You have a chance to make their world of hunger, despair and insecurity artificial. You have the power to make hope, peace and goodwill a very genuine reality.

William Loewen

Pastor, Trinity Mennonite Church

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