An American Christmas Without Presents

This year my paycheck will go towards the light, gas and water bills, insurance bills, mortgage payment, food, and just enough gasoline to make it to work and back. There will be no Christmas lights, tree, or feast. I'll be lucky if I can put enough money aside in savings to make it through a month should I get laid off of work at the end of the year. I, like many Americans, can't afford to buy my family and friends presents for Christmas. This will be the first time that I won't be making a list of people to buy for and checking it off. This will be the first year that I won't be braving the crazed crowds of consumers who had procrastinated buying presents. This will be the first year that I won't be staying up late on Christmas Eve to wrap last minute things that I had forgotten to buy. This will be the first time that I will go to a Christmas dinner party empty handed. Many Americans will experience the exact same hardships this year, and many more will endure much worse. I'm slightly disappointed that I can't surprise my friends and family with presents that were well thought out and planned, then wrapped in shiny, colorfully decorated paper. I'm not, however, depressed. I am so thankful for my life, my home, my friends and family. I can count my blessings and look happily towards yesterday, today and tomorrow.

The spirit of Christmas lives in the hearts of all of us who celebrate it, but it's easy to lose our selves in the bills, shopping lists, check out lines and parking lots. Some of us start planning our shopping lists at the start of a new year and obsess over the best deals. We get up early on Black Friday and shop late into the evening. We get so excited about decorating the presents and sending out the cards that we get wrapped up in forgetting what we are celebrating. When we are celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ we are, in essence, giving thanks for the best gift of all. God gave us the gift of Love and Life wrapped up in the skin of a baby boy with ten fingers and ten toes, to save us. Sure, the holiday has been adapted from other religious traditions and practices. There are many other traditions and religious holidays that are celebrated during this time of year. These other holidays are also, in essence, a means of giving thanks for Life and Love. Regardless of what faith, religion, or spirituality we are, we are all in this beautiful and free country together. Some of us might be celebrating an American Christmas without presents, but I will be giving the best gift of all to my friends and family this Christmas; there will be strong loving embraces to the ones that I can see, and sentiments of Love and thanks to the ones that are far. Don't let yourself get down and depressed if you can't buy presents during the holidays. I encourage every American, young or old, rich or poor, suffering or thriving, Christian or not, to continue the spirit of the holiday and celebrate with the best gift of all: Love!