The commercialization of Christmas and all the other holidays

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Christmas is the big gift giving holiday for a lot of people. There are a lot of non Christian religions that do not celebrate Christmas and yet whatever winter festival or holiday they do celebrate has been commercialized as well. I used to have a boyfriend who was Jewish and I had the privelege of celebrating Channakah with them one year. I was shocked to see that his daughter and son in law had brought a whole suitcase full of wrapped presents for their children for the holidays. And they were even wrapped in paper that read Happy Channakah on it, yet looked suspiciously like Christmas wrap to me. Christmas has become so commercialized that people are really having trouble with knowing that they will not be able to afford a lot of nice presents for their families and friends. So few people have the creativity and talent to make a gift for a loved one that is unique, desirable, and has meaning. Well you may all be quite talented people, I do not have either the talent or the skills to make beautiful and special gifts for my loved ones. Some people this saddens, others feel guilty or frustrated. I am in luck however because 1 I have a small immediate family and 2 My boyfriend is a leatherworker with over 38 years of experience, and an industrial leather sewing machine, and scyther in my livingroom. While he sells his bags and purses for $500 and up he has agreed to make a purse for my daughter from the materials that we already have here, and as for the hardware a closures he usually does the silver work himself and I have a few pieces of silver that he can melt and use if need be. I would rather have them remade into a closure for my daughter than keep momentos of the past anyway. That is the most important of my gifts out of the way, I want to get her a really nice gift this year because she is turning 20 next week and I just cannot afford a gift for that this year, and she also got married this year. My mother never expects a present from me so if I can afford to do more than send her a card this year she won't be surprised. She also just recently lost her job and I don't want her to feel obligated to buy me something just because I send her something. As for most of the rest of my family phone calls are sufficient and that leaves me with only three gifts to concern myself with and those are all for people who have known and loved me and been loved by me for years. If they don't get anything from me on Christmas it won't be the first, and more than likely not the last time that they won't. I am not going to let the holiday season stress me out just because the mercantile industry says that I should, and that it is expected. There are many ways to let people know that you care and that you love them that will cost you little or nothing. Send out cards this year, letting people know that you care and that they are in your heart this holiday season. They will understand. Focus on your family and the reason for the celebration, which is a commemoration of the birth of Christ. Whether or not he was born in December is in doubt but this is when it is celevrated worldwide. Celebrate his life and the great gift that is said to have been given to us with his birth, don't allow the commercialization of the holiday "gift giving season" allow you to overextend yourself either financially or emotionally. You can only do what you can do, and with the economy set to be in even worse condition until the end of next year I won't spend a dime that I didn't have to spend for a while. All those who are independantly wealthy, or are well off enough to spend money and not have it impact their entire lives or deprive them of any neccessities, PLEASE DISREGARD THIS DISCUSSION AND PLEASE FEEL FREE TO SPEND SPEND SPEND!