As the winter cold overwrites the comforting summer heat, the days becoming shorter and darker, we begin to reach for our heated blankets to preserve the little body heat that we have. The cold serves a bone-chilling and necessary reminder that Christmas is right around the corner. People start to go all out with shopping looking for the perfect presents, perfect gifts, planning the perfect meals, choosing the perfect people to spend it with. But all this spending should be secondary, we position it as number one. Amid all the spending, the true meaning of Christmas starts to get overlooked with consumerism becoming the focus.
The consumerism culture, especially around Christmas, is distracting and all-encompassing. As a result, it has distorted the way we celebrate the holiday. The path we are on is a slippery slope and soon the significance of Christmas will be completely lost.
Research conducted by World Remit found that within the UK, the average cost of Christmas per household is £1042, and 70% of that is spent solely on presents or material goods.
Meanwhile, according to a 2024 study by Kings College London, six in 10 people say Christmas is mainly a family occasion, and only 7% of people believe it’s mainly a religious celebration.
“Christmas nowadays, is more about spending so much money buying and having a good money,” Miriam Nanteza, a minister at Living Word Temple Church, explained. “They think of it as an excuse to buy presents… it’s the mindset behind all these things, they’re mindset is not Christ centred, people have forgotten the significance the real significance of Christmas, all the shopping has overthrown the truth and significance of Christmas.”
Some people may ask but what’s wrong with buying gifts for Christmas? What’s wrong with using the holiday for making people feel appreciated what’s wrong with showing gratitude and putting a smile on people’s faces?
I would say there’s nothing wrong with that. In fact, it’s even noble. But why spend so much in the first place? Are you doing it simply for the appearance of generosity, or are you truly doing it out of the kindness out of your heart?
And if you are simply doing it out of the kindness of your heart, why spend so much money on a singular gift? Why not use that money and do lots of things for different people by donating to charities, schools or libraries?
The Christmas story, the story of the birth of Jesus Christ, fundamentally is a call to generosity and about finding value in the non-materialistic things.
We need to revert the narrative and take back the true meaning and significance of Christmas. Let’s strip back the wallpaper of consumerism and focus more on the true meaning of Christmas.