Guest Author - Linda J. Paul

Today is Sept.20, and we started to put out Christmas items at work. All of our Halloween and Thanksgiving items are already on the shelves. Working in retail, I can see the commercialism involved in the traditional holidays getting worse every year.

And, Christmas is definately the worst. We already have 12 different kinds of make-up kits to choose from, and over a hundred different scents of perfume, cologne, and aftershave. The day after Halloween, we will pull an all-nighter and stock the shelves with boughs of ivy. Half of our store will become Christmas merchandise. The Photo Center will start to advertise do-it-yourself Christmas cards, and the shopping will start in earnest the day after Thanksgiving.

As Christmas gets closer, our staff gets grumpier. We are faced with angry customers, tired customers, and customers who are spending money they don't have. More then once, I have heard someone say that they would be paying off the charge bill for this Christmas until the following Christmas. People go into major debt at Christmas time.

So, when did the commercialism take over? And, when did our species forget that Christmas is not all about buying our loved ones expensive gifts? More importantly, how do we break the habit of overspending to impress others on one day a year?

My family has never celebrated a "traditional" Christmas. We celebrate Midwinter Solstice, also known as Yule. On Yule, we give one another gifts from the heart. Last Yule, the kids got together and gave me a picture of all of them and the grandchildren together. That meant more to me than any expensive gifts, because I knew the time and trouble they went to in order to meet at a given place on a given day when they all live in different places.

We get together for a family dinner, and afterwards we bundle up and go out into the cold winter night, and give thanks to the Earth and the Creator for the blessings we have.. the most important of which is our family.

My adult children have carried on the tradition with their own families. I asked them last year if they had ever missed taking part in Christmas celebrations. They all said "no." They all love the idea of a peaceful, debt free day of giving thanks and honoring family.

I am not in any way dishonoring the true meaning behind Christmas. For many, it is a sacred day. What I feel dishonors that sanctity is the craziness that preceeds that day. Retailers take full advantage of that craziness, and the more we give the more we are expected to give. On top of that, many of the retailers, including the one that I work for, expect their employees to work on that day.. just in case there might be one or two last minute shoppers who need a gift.

I think that maybe the true meaning of Christmas is inherent in the celebration that my family takes part in. We celebrate love, we celebrate family, and we honor the miracle of creation. And, isn't that, after all, what Christmas is truly all about?