BellaOnline Forums Relationships Married No Kids Commercials and the child-bearing message.

It is over commercialized but my biggest beef against christmas, despite being my second favorite holiday is that people often make it out to be only about kids. Not just companies but actual people, I can't even count how many people have asked,

"So you get your kids what they wanted for christmas?" and when I say I don't have any, they act like I can't really enjoy Christmas without kids.

I know as a kid, I liked the gifts, but they were never excessive, and it was mostly new clothes which was something I rarely got. Seeing as I got second hand clothes more often than not. I did ask for things but I rarely got them unless it was in my parents budget, but that wasn't what I loved about the holidays. It was the family coming over, the cakes, cookies, food, and the warm feeling it provided. It wasn't about presents even at a young age, I was always more excited about dinner =)

Though, I just wish that companies showed more happily child-free couples opening gifts that aren't diamonds or expensive gadgets. Just a nice quiet scene with a roaring fire or something, with a small plug for merchandise. I just hate all the child-bearing messages in society, it bugs me sometimes while mostly I hardly notice.

Though luckily my cousin, who is Jewish, doesn't expect me to buy his son anything. Which I couldn't afford anyways, though I was thinking of writing a children's book for his son eventually. Sometime nice for his son when his son gets abit older. I prefer handmade gifts to store bought gifts anyways.

When I was young it was all about the dinner for me, too! All the yummy food and especially the sweet home baked treats. Some things were only made around Christmas time, so that was more fun to enjoy than the gifts, which often included clothes, and was on a much smaller scale than how gift giving is today.

Being an adult on a budget I have often baked treats for family and friends or even made other kinds of gifts. One year was a combined low budget and homemade gift. I spray painted and decorated fruit and other type baskets, then filled them with loaves of fresh baked honey wheat bread that I bought at a specialty store. I added some homemade jam and cookies that I made, some tea packages, small bags of coffee to make a single pot, packets of hot cocoa, and a few holiday candies. It didn't cost me much to give a really nice and thoughtful gift to several people.

These days my entire family lives month to month, so we keep gifts very small, home baked, or not at all, and we enjoy time together whether in person or on the phone because they live far from me. That special time together means more than anything else for all of us. It is a much better time had by all, and it is so much less stressful. No need to strain the budget or deal with the chaotic stores.

As far as Christmas being geared mainly towards kids, it really is annoying. Unfortunately, society in general still believes that popping out kids is the norm, and the kids bring joy to everything. Not only that, but this time of year is when the merchants make their money, so they appeal to parents and kids to increase their selling power. Have you ever noticed how expensive toys are today? It is ridiculous. Not to mention the electronics that kids are into today.

So not my bag of chips......

I made a rule for myself to buy two gifts for each person on my list this year and I stuck to that. David and I are turning on the Yule log, I'm baking some ham and cooking up some other delicious stuff and we're going to have a great holiday with our animals!