Growing up, my brother and I always got so excited about the Christmas catalog coming in. About 3 weeks before Thanksgiving it would come in the mail and it was like someone had told us we had won the lottery we were so excited! The toys in the catalog you couldn’t get in our store so it was always such a surprise to see all the amazing things!
Mom made us take turns looking at it. It was almost an inch thick so there was a lot to look at. My brother and I would spend HOURS dog-earring pages with everything we wanted. My mom gave us both paper and a pen and told us to write down everything we wanted. We were write list after list. Each time we would strike more things off the list and “re-order” them with the things we wanted the most.
In my mind, we were getting everything we wrote down (silly, I know). But my mom never said anything was out of reach. Obviously, my parents did NOT buy us everything on the list. That would be silly. But I remember that excited feeling of getting to pick out what Santa was going to bring me.
This weekend I was at home and there on the table was the Christmas Catalog. I almost lost my breath I was so excited. I picked it up and hugged it. It wasn’t as big as I remember it being. You can thank the internet for that. There weren’t as many toys. You can thank gameboys and x-box for that. There weren’t as many dolls. You can thank American Girl for that. There were a few things that were the same, but mostly different.
But Christmas is different now. When I was little my mom shopped for Christmas gifts, but not too much. Now, people start shopping in October. My parents budgeted $150 for each of us for Santa gifts. Now parents spend thousands on their kids for a holiday about Jesus.
I’m not saying we shouldn’t buy gifts for Christmas. I love gifts and I love giving gifts. But I have to wonder how much more of the real reason is going to be cut out each year…how much more “real” Christmas do we really have?
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