Holiday Spirit.

            The first writer, Amel Saleh wrote exactly how I feel about the holiday season. Saleh first sentence states, “The holiday season is driven entirely by materialism.” which is a statement that I completely agree with. Holidays are a time for families to spend time with one another, to celebrate and appreciate the good fortune they have. As of lately, I’ve noticed that during this season people place more emphasis on showing off the presents they received, having the biggest turkey, competition between who has the more extravagant Christmas lights on the block; it’s gotten out of control. It seems as though the expectations of what the holidays should be has drastically changed from when I was a kid to the children now. I was taught that holidays were to be all about family and appreciation rather than who has the better possessions and belongings.

            Family was always the most important part of the holidays. Having a big family meant that the amount of presents each of my siblings and I got were exiguous.  My mother would always tell us, “Don’t expect much this Christmas, instead appreciate that you even got anything and that you are surrounded by people who love you.” She always said that after one of the younger kids had a crying fit over a toy she denied them of having, so her tone wasn’t exactly the most patient when she said this. However, when Christmas day arrived none of my siblings and I cared about the amount of presents we received. What was important to us was watching the cheesy Christmas shows with our parents, having teamed snowball fights (the teams were usually always Team Mom and Dad vs. all the kids), and then warming ourselves with a home cooked family dinner. The time spent with my family is what I remember and cherish most rather than what present I got and I believe that’s the way the holidays should be spent.