Hassig

A recent Christ­mas design for LFA.

Emmanuel Christ­mas Graphic (click to view)

Why must Christ­mas be so focused on giv­ing? Don’t get me wrong, I do like receiv­ing gifts. But this year even I find myself say­ing, “Don’t worry about it, I really don’t want any­thing.” Why? I’m not even com­pletely sure. Pos­si­bly a mix­ture of things, there really is noth­ing this year that makes me say or feel, “I want/need that.” Now would I mind hav­ing a new 55″ Sam­sung LED? Well of course not! But I don’t need it, I’m lucky to have a 37″ Vizio that is hon­estly far more than I need. I sup­pose that’s what it all comes down to any­way, con­tent­ment. There will always be a new prod­uct or toy com­ing out, always big­ger (or smaller), always new fea­tures, mixed with an adver­tise­ment sat­u­rated media designed to cre­ate need.

This really isn’t really a pro­posal to aban­don gifts, because they’re a great way to show love and appre­ci­a­tion. Nor is it in any way an attempt at some sort of guilt trip. I sup­pose it’s sim­ply a reflec­tion on where I have been, am cur­rently, and am going. And pos­si­bly a bit of a reflec­tion of our soci­ety as a whole, which sadly, I model quite well.

I think the top­ics of gifts is ele­vated in my mind, because (/sigh) on that whole love lan­guage thing the gift aspect is pretty much a 0 all around for me. I don’t nat­u­rally express love or appre­ci­a­tion through gifts and I don’t really feel it receiv­ing them either. Then again, plenty of other peo­ple do, which I try to keep in mind for their sake. That being said, I’m really look­ing for­ward to Christmas.

What are your thoughts?