X-Mas or $-Mas?
Story by Hilda Garcia

It's amazing how fast time goes by. I've just realized Christmas is almost here. Of course, the first thing that comes into one's minds is the fact that one has to start saving up money and that one has to start doing our Christmas shopping. You don't realize at the moment of shopping how much money is wasting, and sometimes you go over the amount of money one can really spend.

Basically, one sometimes wastes money that shouldn't be wasted because one doesn't have to buy everything one buys and sometimes one can't afford to be wasting so much money. Now, many people spend excessive amounts of money because Christmas is getting here and they have to buy gifts, and the fact that people see Christmas as a time of giving and getting presents concerns me a lot. Isn't Christmas a time to celebrate other things and spending time together, not giving away presents -- basically materialism?

As I see my environment, Christmas is turning into a time of giving and getting presents instead of spending time together with your family and celebrating. Is that really the meaning of Christmas? What people see as X-Mas, I now see as $-Mas. Why? Because people are obsessed in spending money around this time of year instead of celebrating the real Christmas. To me, Christmas is not about giving and getting gifts.

I think of Christmas as a time to give thanks, to spend time with your family, to celebrate, and to give help to those who need it. What I mean in giving help to those who need it is that one should give things to people that are in need. One can help the people in need by buying or donating things like food, clothes, etc. to churches, homeless shelters,etc. When we do good deeds like this for Christmas, one feels good and learns of the true meaning of Christmas.

Now, I'm not telling you not to give gifts to your family, because it feels nice to get a gift for Christmas from the ones you love. I'm just saying that one should spend less money, not buy unnecessary things, and one should do nice deeds to help those that can't celebrate Christmas because they don't have food, or money, or a house, etc. Hopefully, this year things change and I see less of what I've seen other years at malls. This year, I know I'm ready to do some community service in my church for the people in need for Christmas. Are you ready to take onto the challenge of learning the true meaning of Christmas and spending less money? Hopefully, yes.

- age 15, Overfelt High School
 
                                                                

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