The holiday season comes with lots of concerns about how exactly we’ll enjoy the seasons without always having the constant reminder of how expensive everything is. I spend so much time stressing about how we will afford everything. We forget about the joy that the holidays bring. Financial pressures burden the joy of almost every holiday. It’s become such a sad reality and it’s honestly not fair.
A great example would be the financial pressure of Valentine’s Day, a holiday that is known to be full of love and is meant to show one another how much you love a person. I feel like society has made us think that the only way to show someone you truly love them is by buying them luxurious gifts, expensive trips and high end dinners. We have forgotten about the real meaning of how to show someone you love them.
The internal part of us is more important than any gift you’ll ever receive. But even though it’s the internal gifts that most of us like, it’s also okay to want to spend money on someone. It’s just now harder to do that when everything is so expensive.
I’ve had conversations with others and we all just talk about how we can’t even do certain activities without spending $50 or more. Many of us want to give back to our friends and family, and in order to do that we have to work. So there goes a lot of our time. I spend hours working to accumulate enough money for presents.
This is a tiring reality and most of the time we don’t even realize it because we’re all so focused on working to simply provide for ourselves and others.
Inflation and economic problems aren’t the only reason why the joyfulness of the holidays feel less special. All of the poverty, counterterrorism, immigration issues, and Epstein files controversy are hard to ignore. I believe this has a lot to do with why we can’t really celebrate much. It has made it harder for people to feel festive.
With prices going up on simple things, families have to focus more on the important things and prioritize safety rather than the celebration and gifts. Which is sad because kids don’t deserve that. Any holiday is supposed to be magical and fun.
Thinking about my childhood and how different things are now compared to how they used to be makes me think about the holidays I experienced. For any holiday my parents always make sure that me and my siblings feel loved and also make sure we know the importance of holidays.
For kids to not have a good holidays experience because of all of the issues in our world makes me sad. It shouldn’t be like this and it is very unfair. We’re supposed to be able to afford a simple gift and spread the joy of the holidays.
