What the hell has Christmas come to? The commercials on TV depict happy people out spending their money like they haven't a care in the world. 'Just come to our store, and all your dreams will come true'. What they don't show is people parked on sidewalks and sleeping in tents so they can push and shove their way through a crowd. They don't show how all the prices are marked up before they are 'on sale'. They don't show the person walking by without a dollar in their pocket to buy a fucking sandwich, wishing they had a place to spend the holiday, or a family to spend it with.
Instead, it's, 'Hey moms, come here for the best toys.' Or, 'Hey dad's, diamonds make everything better, buy one for you wife.' Then what happens? The child plays with the box instead of the toy and the jewelry sits in a box until it's once-a-year appearance on your anniversary.
Here's an idea, if you have the money, spend it on the person without. Or better, donate all the stuff you got last year and is currently sitting at the bottom of your closet and spend the holiday with your family instead of out shopping with crowds of strangers.
It's nice to imagine a pure and innocent Xmas some time in the past, but at least my observation starting in the fifties of the last century says that there was no such time.
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