'Tis The season

Here it is Christmas morning culminating another season of buying more stuff. How difficult we find it as a consumerist society to question exactly what we do every day, but especially between Thanksgiving and Christmas. This year, beginning back in September, I decided to remind myself every day that the purpose of Christmas was to buy stuff. While we had the occasional feel-good human interest story in the paper or on the news, the stories I noticed more often were the ones about smart shopping, how stores were doing, safe shopping, protecting the stuff you bought while shopping, and how sales were compared to this time last year. Combined with seeing the crowds in the stores--I'm just as guilty as the next consumer--made the whole idea more and more repulsive. Even at Christmas Eve Mass, our priest talked of the importance of Christ and then reminded the children about presents. Remembering way back, as a child I knew the importance of Christmas. Getting presents. This year I got a dose of reality that I feel powerless against. What'd you get?