And no matter if you're like this:
there is no escaping the holidays.
Christmas is everywhere. It's in the stores, it's on the radio, it's in our schools (unless you're at a public school where you get detention for even muttering "Merry Christmas"), it's in most of our homes, it's on our TVs and our computers. No matter what you celebrate, when December rolls around you have to be ready for the barrage of red and green decorations.
Christmas is probably one of my favorite holidays. I love giving gifts. It's probably my favorite thing. I love watching people's faces light up when they open the gifts I bought them. The only problem is that I ALWAYS end up overspending. My friends usually buy gifts within the $20 range, $20 being the maximum they spend on one person. For me, $20 is the minimum. I probably spent about $51 on my best friend's Christmas present alone. Then I spent about $93 on my other friends combined. And then I spent another $13 on a secret Santa present. So altogether, I spent $157 in the span of two weeks. And not to mention, I haven't even started getting my parents' gifts. Considering I'm a 16 year old high school student who does not have a job, that's a lot of money for me to blow through. But it's not like those things are for me, they're gifts for my friends! That makes it okay, right?...
Although I love giving gifts, getting gifts turns into quite an experience for me. I have very unique interests. I know what I like but that doesn't mean my family does. I usually have to supervise my mother while she buys things online to make sure she gets the right thing and doesn't click on any add that downloads some super evil computer virus. So when I wake up on Christmas morning, I already know what I'm getting.
Every year, we spend Christmas Eve night and Christmas Day with my mother's family. We exchange Christmas lists but that doesn't mean they get me anything on the list. My mother and I both are usually left out. We never get as many gifts as everyone else and we usually never get what we asked for. It just kinda sucks, you know?
But I guess Christmas really isn't about presents (though it is a fun part of it). It should be about spending quality time with your friends and family. It's a time when we should be appreciating other's company. Not whining about not getting what we asked for. We should just be happy with who we have, not what we have.
