Sure, Christmas is one of the best times of the year. There is an invigorating crispness in the air, streets and homes twinkle with festive multi-colored lights, wonderful memories of past Christmases are stirred up by sentimental carols, and people sort of become more cheerful and friendly.
But Christmas can be the worst time of year, both for us humans and for Mother Nature. The once simple and heartwarming celebration of Christ’s birthday has become a commercial monster that devours us year after year. But the strange thing is that we love it. We are addicted to the wild high of consumerism that Christmas opiates us with each year, and we are actually hooked to the harrowing and stressful, not to mention expensive yearend festivities.
Unwanted Gifts
This year, we will once again be spending millions on unwanted Christmas gifts. What senseless waste! We give presents because tradition tells us to (okay, you may blame the Three Kings or Santa!), and our shallow, little brains have been programmed that it is the thing to do.
Don’t get me wrong – I don’t want to be a killjoy – I enjoy giving and receiving gifts, too. But we tend to go overboard and overdo the whole process. We are seduced by clever advertisements and glittering promises. We get attacked by the must-have-it fever and afflicted with the must-give-it pangs of guilt.
We tell ourselves to shop early, send our greetings early, but those things rarely get done. So, we get sucked into the maddening Christmas whirlpool again. Trying to figure out which gift to get whom with which money from where is horror enough. And what about the stressful shopping rush and the gallant but later regretted overspending?
If we put on our wisdom glasses, we would see that Christmas has become a blatant commercial orgy, an over-the-top material rat race. Yet no matter how many brightly wrapped toys and gifts we receive, we still feel empty, non-satiated. All this misleading fanaticism is exhausting. Will we ever grow tired of it?
If Only Trees Could Talk
If only trees could talk, they would object to what we do to them every Christmastime. We load them with lanterns and tinsel, and entwine kilometer-long Christmas lights around their trunks and delicate branches. Pretty, yes, but all the holiday décor could be a heavy burden for the trees to bear. The lights can get hot, leaving the tree thirsty and dry. And if we make the mistake of using a defective set of lights, the poor little tree could be electrocuted and burned.
Have you ever considered that the lights when turned on at night could actually disrupt the tree’s circadian rhythm? Trees go to sleep, too, you know. When the lights are on, the tree gets confused as to whether it should photosynthesize or not. And the leaves turn their photosensitive side to where the light is; thank God, trees are more intelligent than we think they are. And we sing, "Little Christmas tree, no one to buy you, give yourself to me." Hello, it would be frightened stiff!
Killing The Earth
Every Christmas, we pollute our planet and hasten its aging by many years. The end of the season leaves us with frightening tons of garbage from remnants of commercial abuse and excessive packaging – gift wrappers, plastic bags, boxes, ribbons, advertising materials, used décor, etc. There is also a huge amount of waste from food packaging – Styrofoam containers (non-biodegradable! Why haven’t these been outlawed yet?), plastic cups, and utensils (these don’t biodegrade in 50 years!), used paper napkins, not to mention the food wastage and spoiled leftovers which ironically could feed the world’s hungry.
And during the yuletide season, the earth nervously gears itself for the greatest annual ecological fiasco of all – New Year’s Eve, when we burn millions in firecrackers, pyrotechnics, and gunpowder to the great discomfort of poor Mother Earth. The waste in the aftermath is disgusting and the air becomes so polluted that your nostrils turn black. We are not only killing Mother Nature, we are asphyxiating ourselves to death.
Ditch The Junk
Is there a way we could enjoy all the glorious, wonderful, fuzzy feelings that Christmas brings without being too excessive on our part and abusive of Mother Nature? Yes, but we must use our common sense. We must get rid of most of the pointless junk that Christmas commercialism brings.
That would mean buying sensible gifts so we don’t add more junk and dust-gatherers into our abodes. We must give gifts the receiver could really use. Be creative in your gift packaging; use natural and biodegradable materials if possible. Recycle materials and dispose of waste properly. And be concerned about the country’s economy as well; Buy locally made products so we won’t sink deeper in foreign debt.
And please try to refrain from singing carols that speak of tropics-irrelevant things such as "Dashing through the snow in a one-horse open sleigh," and stop "Dreaming of a white Christmas just like the ones I used to know" unless you grew up in a wintry place. Dream of a green and ecologically right Christmas instead. Right, JC? Merry Christmas everybody, and happy birthday JC!
But Christmas can be the worst time of year, both for us humans and for Mother Nature. The once simple and heartwarming celebration of Christ’s birthday has become a commercial monster that devours us year after year. But the strange thing is that we love it. We are addicted to the wild high of consumerism that Christmas opiates us with each year, and we are actually hooked to the harrowing and stressful, not to mention expensive yearend festivities.
Unwanted Gifts
This year, we will once again be spending millions on unwanted Christmas gifts. What senseless waste! We give presents because tradition tells us to (okay, you may blame the Three Kings or Santa!), and our shallow, little brains have been programmed that it is the thing to do.
Don’t get me wrong – I don’t want to be a killjoy – I enjoy giving and receiving gifts, too. But we tend to go overboard and overdo the whole process. We are seduced by clever advertisements and glittering promises. We get attacked by the must-have-it fever and afflicted with the must-give-it pangs of guilt.
We tell ourselves to shop early, send our greetings early, but those things rarely get done. So, we get sucked into the maddening Christmas whirlpool again. Trying to figure out which gift to get whom with which money from where is horror enough. And what about the stressful shopping rush and the gallant but later regretted overspending?
If we put on our wisdom glasses, we would see that Christmas has become a blatant commercial orgy, an over-the-top material rat race. Yet no matter how many brightly wrapped toys and gifts we receive, we still feel empty, non-satiated. All this misleading fanaticism is exhausting. Will we ever grow tired of it?
If Only Trees Could Talk
If only trees could talk, they would object to what we do to them every Christmastime. We load them with lanterns and tinsel, and entwine kilometer-long Christmas lights around their trunks and delicate branches. Pretty, yes, but all the holiday décor could be a heavy burden for the trees to bear. The lights can get hot, leaving the tree thirsty and dry. And if we make the mistake of using a defective set of lights, the poor little tree could be electrocuted and burned.
Have you ever considered that the lights when turned on at night could actually disrupt the tree’s circadian rhythm? Trees go to sleep, too, you know. When the lights are on, the tree gets confused as to whether it should photosynthesize or not. And the leaves turn their photosensitive side to where the light is; thank God, trees are more intelligent than we think they are. And we sing, "Little Christmas tree, no one to buy you, give yourself to me." Hello, it would be frightened stiff!
Killing The Earth
Every Christmas, we pollute our planet and hasten its aging by many years. The end of the season leaves us with frightening tons of garbage from remnants of commercial abuse and excessive packaging – gift wrappers, plastic bags, boxes, ribbons, advertising materials, used décor, etc. There is also a huge amount of waste from food packaging – Styrofoam containers (non-biodegradable! Why haven’t these been outlawed yet?), plastic cups, and utensils (these don’t biodegrade in 50 years!), used paper napkins, not to mention the food wastage and spoiled leftovers which ironically could feed the world’s hungry.
And during the yuletide season, the earth nervously gears itself for the greatest annual ecological fiasco of all – New Year’s Eve, when we burn millions in firecrackers, pyrotechnics, and gunpowder to the great discomfort of poor Mother Earth. The waste in the aftermath is disgusting and the air becomes so polluted that your nostrils turn black. We are not only killing Mother Nature, we are asphyxiating ourselves to death.
Ditch The Junk
Is there a way we could enjoy all the glorious, wonderful, fuzzy feelings that Christmas brings without being too excessive on our part and abusive of Mother Nature? Yes, but we must use our common sense. We must get rid of most of the pointless junk that Christmas commercialism brings.
That would mean buying sensible gifts so we don’t add more junk and dust-gatherers into our abodes. We must give gifts the receiver could really use. Be creative in your gift packaging; use natural and biodegradable materials if possible. Recycle materials and dispose of waste properly. And be concerned about the country’s economy as well; Buy locally made products so we won’t sink deeper in foreign debt.
And please try to refrain from singing carols that speak of tropics-irrelevant things such as "Dashing through the snow in a one-horse open sleigh," and stop "Dreaming of a white Christmas just like the ones I used to know" unless you grew up in a wintry place. Dream of a green and ecologically right Christmas instead. Right, JC? Merry Christmas everybody, and happy birthday JC!
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