Are too many Holidays being Celebrated Today?

When I was growing up, (last century….good grief I feel old!) time moved slowly and a year seemed to take forever to go by. The holidays were a family time and we always hooked up our caravan (trailer) and went off to a sea-side destination to enjoy some fishing and swimming and generally relaxing as a family together. It was a gentler time and most people were not wealthy. They were happy to get by and enjoy simpler things. We had smaller expectations of life and we didn’t have too many possessions to take care of. As long as we could pay our bills and put food on the table we were relatively happy with our meagre existence.
 
It was not the norm for families to be torn apart by divorce back then. Those children whose parents were no longer together were often pitied. They were certainly not in the majority.

There were no credit cards so if you didn’t have the money, you couldn’t spend it. No one borrowed money except for a house or maybe a car.

If you got a bike, you were the luckiest kid on the block. Your parents had to squirrel money away all year to pay for it.

Fast forward to the 21st century and we all wonder where the last 12 months has disappeared? (Make that the last decade!) Life is incredibly hectic; people are drowning in material possessions, most of which were financed with easy credit. Children (and sometimes even their parents) expect to have all the latest ‘techno’ gadgets, regardless of how much it costs. People are driven to distraction trying to keep up to date with the latest ‘thing’.

Nobody puts money in the bank any more, unless it’s to pay off a credit card.

There is no time for families to eat meals together. Various family members are off doing their own thing and sometimes they don’t sight one another for days.

Ear buds plugged into Mp3’s are almost always in place so our kids don’t really communicate verbally very much any more (unless it is to complain or to ask for something.) We are losing the art of conversation. Young people can text faster than they can talk. Mobile phones are a ‘must have’, not a luxury item anymore. They have become an appendage like an additional body part.

Kids have invented their own language with an extraordinary use of the word, “like” in places where it has no purpose.

People share information and photos on facebook or myspace and this leaves poor older grandmas and grandpas without much communication at all to remind them that they even have grandchildren. The generation gap is now a chasm for some.

Does this explain why we are subjected to so many occasions where we are separated from our hard earned money? Have we become so much of a “gimme” society that we ask to be ‘milked’ several times a year?

There are so many people who just see the rotation of holidays as an expensive burden. A monotonous carousel ride they can’t seem to get off!
Holidays roll around with frightful speed and we dread them because we haven’t finished paying for the last one yet!

Those who are able to go on vacation to any holiday ‘destination’ will all have memories of the crowds who are all trying to do things at the same time.
The price of everything goes up in the holiday season, so it costs more to do anything.

How did this situation arise? Why did all the occasions for family holidays turn into ‘greedfests’?  The ‘spirit of giving’ has given way to the spirit of demanding. We no sooner get one holiday over and done with and the next day, the commercial world is gearing up for the next one!

Marketing companies have got us all jumping through hoops. They advertise the next holiday and told what we are expected to do about it and off we go, like we don’t have a choice in the matter. Baa, baa….

How many people understand how much manipulation goes on at holiday times? It would be unthinkable if you didn’t buy your family members what they wanted, regardless of the cost….credit cards get maxed out again and again and the burden of debt hovers over us like the sword of Damocles.

What if we just said ENOUGH!….we’re not doing this any more!?

What if we all stopped celebrating the commercial holidays and made our own family holidays to fit in with what is convenient to us?

Those who want to celebrate the religious holidays could continue to do so. But those for whom the religious aspect is meaningless, could create their own ‘special’ family occasions. Meaningful holidays could take place all year round!

Makes perfect sense to me!

But I think the commercial world would have a nervous breakdown.

Wouldn’t it be good if we could pick any time of the year to celebrate our own ‘special’ days and we could tell the commercial system that we have had enough of the pressure and the greed that comes with each holiday season?

Common sense can prevail if we simply take the situation in hand and make a stand……do we have the intestinal fortitude to tell ourselves and each other, “I’m not doing this any more”?

Oh the liberation!

Something to think about……