spend less & celebrate more

i don't mean to be a debbie downer but to be honest sometimes the holiday season makes me sad. maybe because i miss my family. maybe because i know their are so many out there struggling to make ends meet just so their loved ones can have a merry christmas. maybe because christmas advertisements & decorations flood places every which (a few months early at that) way we turn that it shoves the idea to buy, buy, buy so blatantly in our faces that it causes us to forget what that special day is truly about. sometimes i really hate the power of consumerism. the theory that increasing the consumption of goods is economically beneficial does not necessarily equate self happiness or contentment. in fact it leaves us wanting more. sometimes i hate that the meaning of holidays has become more about materialistic things than it has about the gift of time with loved ones & celebrating the birth of jesus.