Christmas is coming,
The geese are getting fat,
Please to put a penny in the old man's hat.

If you haven't got a penny,
a ha-penny will do,
If you haven't got a ha-penny,
then God Bless you!

It's an old rhyme, but I think it speaks volumes of what Christmas should be rather than what it has become. I'm a little jaded with the whole Christmas "thing". The commercialism has become all to much. Giving gifts is fine, what I'm talking about is the excess and the flow-on effects it has, that we all read about in January.

Putting aside the Christian Christmas message for a moment, Christmas has become an exercise in "getting". Getting the latest electronic gadgets or whatever. Somewhere along the line, we (as a society) have forgotten the true Spirit of Christmas and have been coerced by big business into thinking that big/expensive is what we all really want/need. Business encourage it, they're rubbing their hands with glee with every sale, banks are doing the same with every slap of the plastic.

Everywhere I look there is the same advertisement over and over, all pushing different stuff, but all saying the same thing.. "Perfect Gift" (or words to that effect). Christmas is Big Business.

Everywhere I look I see people slapping down the plastic, giving in to the coercion.
Am I the only one who can see it? Is this really what we want it to be about?

_sigh_

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.