Al Churchill

In recent days, I have been forced to look for a deeper meaning into Christmas. Each year, I blindly ‘celebrate’ an event I call Christmas, whilst knowing very little about it. Sure, school and the society into which I was born, has taught me certain beliefs, although, I have never truly believed them. So now, I felt it was time to really look into why I blindly buy gifts and wish people a Merry Christmas.
There is much information on the net regarding this and here is one post that I found particularly fascinating. Much of he content has been reiterated by various friends and contacts, culminating in my main conclusion that Christianity has hijacked an Earth festival relating to the Sun and over time has been over commercialized.
In a recent post (Stress Free Christmas) I wrote about not buying gifts. It is the first time in my life that I have adopted this choice and at the last minute, I became nervous. I was concerned that despite our pact, my partner would crumble and still purchase me something. I ran through how I would feel. Am I a Scrooge for not getting anything, do I care less because I didn’t get anything, how will it feel to be the first boyfriend that didn’t buy a gift at Christmas?
All these questions were put to rest as I have made it through the day and no gifts have been exchanged.

It has been extremely liberating, and has highlighted how society holds our freedom to ransom. Society has placed pressures on us to buy gifts. It seems to push a certain misconception that if you don’t buy something for someone then you don’t love them, or you don’t care. Well this just isn’t the case. This brings me back to my unnecessary nervousness. I should not feel pressured by a partner to buy them something just because “Christmas” says so. If my partner needs a gift in order to feel loved, then something is wrong. Either I am not loving properly, or my partner is not receiving love properly.

I can safely say, that the liberation gained from not giving gifts simply because it is Christmas, has strengthened my relationship and added a certain depth and meaning. I feel less controlled by society and released from peer pressure.