Monday 16 November 2015

Is Christmas Too Commercialised?


A Guest Post by the Husband

My favourite Christmas song without question is Wizzard's I Wish it Could be Christmas Every Day, because I love to hear the part where the children are singing. My all-time favourite song, which nobody will have heard of, is Snowbound by Genesis because it tells the story of when the snow arrives and all the children build their snowmen. It may sound corny but to me life is all about watching and hearing children play.


One thing I love to receive are homemade cards, especially from the toddlers, with the upside down star or the donkey with five legs, it means so much to me that they have actually sat down and taken the time for me, you can't walk into a shop and buy a card that will mean as much as one of those.

Phineas and Ferb Christmas Drawing
Phineas and Ferb Christmas


I work hard all year, like many parents, to give my children the best Christmas possible. I don't really care too much what I get, although I'm always grateful, it's all about seeing their faces when they open their presents. Is it just me who thinks it's just been made too commercial these days, though?

Happy Child Opening Gift
I think he likes it!

I can remember growing up in the 70's and 80's when you did well if you got  a stylophone or a wind up Evel Knievel motorcycle and if you were really lucky you could get the present of a lifetime, a portable television. Sadly these days all the children have been born into such a world of technology, they all seem to have televisions, iPhones and computers anyway, which makes it more challenging for parents to buy gifts.

Stylophone
It's a stylophone!


I don't think retailers help much either. As well as launching Christmas as a full on assault from August 1st onwards, so you can walk off the beach sunburnt, then go and buy a selection box if you wish, everything seems to be so astronomically expensive, when the country seems to be locked in poverty. They are also not daft, they seem very in tune with what children seem to want and swamp tv with endless adverts, no wonder children have such high hopes these days. Games consoles are a good example. My console had two lines and a square ball. These days children put their game, which probably cost fifty pounds, into their console, which probably cost three hundred pounds, climb into their fifty inch plasma television and join in!

Boy in Space Suit
Where's the off switch? 


 I'm genuinely not sure if the goal posts have moved or if I am just very behind the times. I do know one thing, I don't remember Christmas being this commercial circus when I was growing up. I don't know what the answer is for parents, but I think it's time to get back to basics as much as possible. A lot of our Christmas consists of things that we've made. Decorations, cards, even some of the presents, there will be fun and laughter and we will all be together, and that, for me, is what's important.

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1 comment

  1. in one word YES
    when I was younger, xmas in the shops would feel more magic, these days those damn crackers and trees come out too soon.
    don't get me started on people putting there decorations up in November!

    ReplyDelete

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