When I was a child, I thought that Christmas would bring magic, friends and family together. People are more generous and there was always a hope for a mountain of presents to open on Christmas morning.

I found myself noticing a few things over the years about the gifts I got on Christmas. Throughout the Christmas season, a lot of emphasis is put on gifts. Children create wish lists that are far longer than what parents can afford to buy, so when it comes time to open gifts, they get disappointed that everything they could have wanted wasn’t given to them. 

After all of the gifting is over and it comes time to actually play with the toys, I realized that there are only a few of those things that were actually useful or entertaining to me. 

There were even some gifts that I had gotten that got lost within days and I would forget about them until my mother, who had spent her hard-earned money on it, asked me where it was or why I didn’t use it.

Now that I’m older, I’m starting to understand what Christmas would have been like from their perspective. They work diligently throughout the year to have the money to afford enough gifts to keep their children from having a feeling of emptiness after opening their presents, only for children to feel disappointed that they didn’t get enough. Mass gift giving is bad from both ends of the spectrum.

With living in a commercialized culture, children believe that the main concept behind the reasoning of Christmas is to have the best, most and trending gifts possible. 

Children are quick to say that, “Christmas is ruined because I didn’t get the newest video game or a new stuffed animal.” 

Christmas is becoming less and less “magical” because of our preoccupation with gifts. Families fight or pout because of the disappointment instead of spending time with each other. 

The only practical way to keep this from happening is to make sure all- parties have a clear idea of what the expectations for the quantity and quality of gifts should be. Whether it be a child, friend or significant other, it’s best to give slight ideas as to what they will be receiving, or at least how much they will be receiving, to keep from forming unrealistic ideal. This is especially important with children. 

It is equally important to only give things that you know will be useful or meaningful. No one likes giving or getting gifts that are just being propped on a shelf.