christmas: a spirit of giving and sharing?

Here comes the time of sharing and giving and celebrating the Christmas spirit with loved ones and relatives. As the year come close to the end. Though nothing much goes through the months that seriously affected my studies or whatsoever, i feel that this year is a very action-packed year with full of events with the most serious of course being the economic crisis.

Now we all know the story about Jesus was born on Christmas day as the story goes on and on. About how God is giving his son and sharing him so that he can cleanse and all the story. But is the spirit of giving and sharing is now being embodied by those who celebrate Christmas round the world?

For Starters, now the Christmas period is a beginning of mass rush of buying sprees as Adults start to buy gifts not only for their children, but also for their loved ones, be it in the workplace or for parties. As such in an economic sense, this means sales for the companies and it boosts the economic growth. Even with the sluggish economy, this would surely help to stregthen and boost the economy. Though people may buy cheaper products for their loved ones, due to recession, it still doesnt symbolise the meaning of Christmas, buying gifts for loved ones is the same as buying gifts for birthdays, and on Valentine's Day?The Only difference perhaps that i can tink of is during parties where there are gift exchanges making it seem as it seem as if it is sharing, or as the word goes "spreading the joy around"

in Singapore, there are many horror stories, or rather funny storries about what people bring into these sharing parties. We heard about people giving what other people gives, the cheap trinket that can bough elsewhere, stupid stuff, such as an barney water bottle to a teenager. Since the claim of bringing gifts is "its the thought that counts" why must people keep bringing weird stuff as gifts ? isit the "cheapness" of the gift that people tend to bring ? So in this case, the Sharing part plays a larger role than the giving part. However, here comes the irony as Singaporeans always scared to lose out, the normal thought would be to outdo each other with expensive gifts, yet in this case, it seems more like a "race" for the cheapest gifts.

Christmas is so important to the commerical world that the week is dubbed the "christmas week" and with the month desginated "christmas month" what is once meant as a celebration to celebrate the birth of jesus, is now comericalised to become a way to splurge gifts on loved ones. I guess looks like most of the economists/businessman are Christians.

We also forgot the underprivilged of the world as well, we dont share nor give them anything as either pittance or simply being charitable, even for such a lazy person like me, we tend not to give a damn for these people, because they are not related to us. In real life, everybody is a selfish bastard who does not care about the less fortunate people.(maybe with the exception of social worker), the Globalised world has made everyone choose carrer as a pirority and caring as a minor requirement. Even those rich people who donate are no exception, they donate part of their wealth as they are already rich but they dont need the cash i highly doubt whether Bill Gates has been charitable in his younger days.

heres a thought to think and merry christmas and happy new year!