“Togetherness isn’t togetherness anymore.”
When I was growing up, the holidays were spent at my great grandmother’s house. As time went on and people started having children and getting married, the numbers decreased. Now the number of people in my family coming together is drastically low compared to when I was a child. At first, I thought it was just my family, but now I know that it is families all throughout the country. A few reasons why this has happened is due to a few factors. One of the factors is that working on a holiday is worth making the extra bucks toward the family household income. Another reason that holidays aren’t the same is because the cost to travel considering so many people have greater distances today. But third reason for a decline in the celebration of holidays is splitting time between families because of marriage.
Is this good for the American family that spending holidays have come down to work and splitting time? And the answer is not that it is a question of is this good, but more so, the change in how holidays are being celebrated is a necessity. But even the meaning of the holiday season has changed. Now on Thanksgiving, instead of spending time with family, people leave early so they can shop for Christmas gifts for Black Friday. We care more about catching the sale on an item we’ve been eyeing for some time than giving thanks. And instead of reflecting over the year during Christmas, we’re enamored with whatever gifts we’ve been given. So what happens when you don’t have a family or even indulge on days like Thanksgiving or Christmas.
It has to be depressing when you go home and there is no food for you to eat or presents under your tree. So for these people, they hate to see this time of year where everyone is galvanizing together to shop. As for me, I lived so long with these types of festivities, it’s no that big of a deal to not engage in the craziness of Black Friday or wake up to Christmas presents under the tree. I would much rather, if I had the finances, purchase gifts for others, than ask for something for Christmas. So, I look at the gifting as more of a children’s time to enjoy than adults anyways. For adults to ask what you gave them for Christmas just sounds too forthcoming and to be quite honest, out of line.
In the end, holidays have changed so much, just in my lifetime and I am only 30 years old. So if you’re in your elderly years, you must look at Christmas as too much of a greedy holiday today. Whatever the case may be, it will continue to take on many forms. And with the cost of living becoming more and more of a problem, you will see more and more people working around this time. It used to be odd to work on a Thanksgiving or Christmas, but not anymore. It has become all the craze to get that time and a half. So much so that some jobs have gotten stiff, stating you have to work on the holiday and another to get scheduled to work.
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