To some people, the holidays are a time of jolliness and presents for all. To others, Christmas season is just another dent in their wallet. Everyone has someone to buy a gift for, whether it be a parent, friend or sibling. Which means more money to spend. As the years pass people seem to spend more and more at the end of the year, turning a once happy time of the year into a shell of its former self.
At the end of the year when the weather is cold and snow falls from the sky, Christmas shines bright as a time where people can just be happy and reflect on the year they have had. But it is hard to focus on the good ahead when you have to spend a pretty penny on things for the holidays.
The U.S federal reserve actually increases the amount of money in banks near the end of the year. So many people are spending so much money at once on Christmas that the government prints more to keep the economy moving forward. And all this shopping and spending is leaving some wondering what happened to the holiday they loved.
Students like Hannah Cherian ’26 loves Christmas but thinks shopping has been getting a little excessive recently.
“It is not about giving the gifts anymore, just about buying them,” Cherian said. “At the end of the day, you just buy stuff without giving it any thought or love.”
One could think back and remember how much Christmas shopping divided us. Students like Chase Felcyn ’26 said he remembers fighting for deals on gifts for our families. According to Capital One 57 percent of people shop for gifts online.
“Now that everything is online,” Felcyn said. “People have access to just so many more options of things to buy and just so much stupid stuff that they don’t need. They see gifts now that they didn’t see before in stores and think it is a good idea to buy it.”
Susan Edgar believes people should reflect on why they are buying gifts for others, not how much they are buying.
“I think that there’s too much emphasis on gift giving at Christmas time. People should narrow down how much shopping they do and make the gifts they give to others more meaningful,” Edgar said. “I think Christmas is a lot more commercialized than it used to be in way. Christmas should be a lot more of the it is what you have and not what you mean.”
Edgar also thinks that Christmas should be a more family centered holiday than a gift giving holiday.
“People’s gifts need to have thought behind them, and people need to kind of step back a little bit and think more about what they’re doing with their families and their friends on Christmas,” Edgar said. “Not spending so much time on gift giving, but the experience of being together on Christmas. Retailers have made it less of a family focused holiday now.”
