This Christmas has already become one of the most stressful Christmases for quite some time. This season, more people are struggling than ever before with monetary issues, which are causing a lot of irritability within families.
This letter is to remind people what we should be thankful for, instead of what we no longer have. It is hard to get away from the idea of giving and receiving presents, especially with the commercials and advertisements of what to give this Christmas and what to ask for.
The government failed to admit our recession in fear that people would be afraid to spend money. Now that it is out, many kids are hearing that they will not be getting a "big Christmas" this year.
So what is a "big Christmas"? No Christmas, to me, is any smaller or bigger than the year before. I may not get as many presents one year, but it certainly does not make my Christmas any smaller. The season is about celebrating the birth of Christ, and being with family and friends. It is about baking cookies and drinking hot chocolate, listening to Christmas music from the day after Halloween all the way to the New Year, and decorating Christmas trees with the ones closest to your heart.
Everyone needs to be thankful for what they have, instead of asking for more. We have become a greedy nation that is so caught up in what everyone else has that we do not have.
So this Christmas, I challenge your readers to think about what they do have that others do not. Bake cookies for Santa while listening to Christmas music; really listen to the songs and think about the holiday cheer instead of the holiday hassles. And have a Merry Christmas!
Kessler Johnson, North Augusta, S.C.
The Augusta Chronicle ©2010. All Rights Reserved.
You sure went around your elbow to get to your thumb, Kessler Johnson, but I think I agree with your premise. Christmas has never been about an overabundance of gifts. Families that have made it so are the only ones not able to deal with this years economic challenge.