Home And Family

As another Christmas season approaches us this year many of us are faced with how we are going to get through it when times are so bad. So many people are out of work and are struggling to hold onto their homes. There are those who are trying to figure out where the money for food is going to come from for the week. Many are faced with no medical insurance and fears of Swine Flu flooding our country. What can we do to make it a Christmas to remember and not find ourselves in more of a financial mess than some of us are starting the season with?

Holidays in general can be a very stressful time for many people. Not everyone finds Christmas and New Years something that they can’t wait for. Statistically, holidays can be one of the most stressful and depressing times, even for those who seem to be happy the rest of the year. There can be many contributing factors to this, some people just can’t afford to have the types of holidays they once had. There are those who many have lost a loved one and are celebrating the first holiday seasons without this person. They also could have lost someone during this time of year and are reminded of memories they wish they could forget.

There isn’t a day on the news when you don’t hear of more job cuts and layoffs. People even with the best of educations are finding that they can’t find a job and are faced with figuring out how they are going to make ends meet until they can find one. There doesn’t seem to be any job that is truly safe these days and worry of losing your job creates a constant stress in the back of your mind.

In our hard economic times this year money is a major factor for depression and the holiday season only reminds us how bad things are and reminds us that we have to cut back or eliminate some from our lists. Then we are faced with the fact that we must convey these messages to these people we have to eliminate and still be able to feel good about ourselves.

Which brings us to what can we do to somehow even if only for a very short time put these things out of our minds and truly have a Christmas to remember? Is this even something you can possibly do? Is there not a better time of year to do everything in your power to refocus your energies and remember what is truly important, even for a short time?

Many years ago there was a time when children actually only received one present for Christmas, can you even imagine this? These children were happy and thankful for this one present. Now to be realistic, this was probably a time most of us were not even around to see and the children of today would not be accepting of this. Telling the children of today these stories of Christmas’s long ago would probably be up there with the walking to school both ways uphill and one pair of shoes for the year stories we all heard growing up.

This leaves us with some basics of Christmas, which one must reach into their hearts and truly think about. Why do we celebrate Christmas and what does Christmas truly mean? Are there family traditions you share each year that help to strengthen your family? Can we venture past the commercialism of the holiday and go back in time when Christmas meant so much more? Or is it really all about waking up to piles of presents and then waking up to piles of bills for it that we can’t afford?

Christmas can be so much more this year if you take the time to look deep into what it really should be about. Presents don’t have to be expensive, there are many nice things you can buy at dollar stores and fix into something respectable. If you have children go back to basics, loved ones really enjoy those homemade gifts. We are not alone this year in this economic crisis, our country is united in this and it is something we all share in. Remember each person in this world is filled with many gifts, we have the gift of life, we have the gift of family and we have the gift of friends. Could any gift under your tree this Christmas mean more than those three things?