Superficiality of Christmas
What exactly is Christmas? To the religious, it is a significant day. However, to the non-believers such as myself, Christmas is just another holiday. At best, it is a reason for gifts, not that I bought any to give besides the V3 that I bought for myself :P
What significance does Christmas hold outside the confines of the churches? Basically, it is not difficult to realise that it is one of, if not the most, profitable holiday to make money out of. Retailers have all geared up, diverting non-frontline staff to help out, to meet the throngs of shoppers. When else will things like chocolates, photo frames, candles and other such cheap but generally useless stuff see brisk sales as the past weeks? Gifts giving is but a useless and superficial gesture when the giver has not really given gifts that are useful and relevant to the receiver.
As someone who does not celebrate Christmas, I have once again not gotten into this gifts mode but had received 2 small presents from my colleagues. One box of biscuits and the other seems to be some tourist souvenir which I have absolutely idea what it is for. This really does help in reinforcing the superficiality of the spirit of giving.
When you want to give presents to people, put in some efforts and at least get something more relevant. I understand that that might be hard sometimes especially when the person is not a particularly close friend. But if that not particularly close friend is me, just remember that I am a relatively traditional person and a gift of "ang bao" will do much better.
What significance does Christmas hold outside the confines of the churches? Basically, it is not difficult to realise that it is one of, if not the most, profitable holiday to make money out of. Retailers have all geared up, diverting non-frontline staff to help out, to meet the throngs of shoppers. When else will things like chocolates, photo frames, candles and other such cheap but generally useless stuff see brisk sales as the past weeks? Gifts giving is but a useless and superficial gesture when the giver has not really given gifts that are useful and relevant to the receiver.
As someone who does not celebrate Christmas, I have once again not gotten into this gifts mode but had received 2 small presents from my colleagues. One box of biscuits and the other seems to be some tourist souvenir which I have absolutely idea what it is for. This really does help in reinforcing the superficiality of the spirit of giving.
When you want to give presents to people, put in some efforts and at least get something more relevant. I understand that that might be hard sometimes especially when the person is not a particularly close friend. But if that not particularly close friend is me, just remember that I am a relatively traditional person and a gift of "ang bao" will do much better.
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