I live in australia where thankfully Black Friday does not exist. I don't miss it. In all the news sites I follow, Black Friday was all over the headlines and I can't explain exactly what it is, it just all seemed a lot more sinister this year. I read about stores opening at 9pm on Thanksgiving day and being open all night and I thought, wait...9pm? Isn't that the time you're supposed to be spending with your family? What in the world could be so important to purchase that people would need to shorten one of the best family holidays there is? As someone who grieves missing those unique family times, it blows me away that you would have the option to be there, and choose going to...WalMart instead, with all it's terrible lighting...
I absolutely love Christmas. To me, it really is the most wonderful time of the year! My Christmas's were literally out of a movie. Beautiful decorated homes, huge family gatherings with lots of good food, and gifts and more gifts and more gifts. I'm so thankful I grew up with that. I'm in no way against the giving of gifts, or spending money to get something special for someone you care about. It's a very real way of expressing love, one that my family is so good at. I actually want to be more like that. I want to be more generous with my money. I want to value my relationships so much that at times I'm willing to spend extra money to show that. I see that displayed around me by people who don't stress about how much a meal costs because the return of having spent 2 hours with people they care about was more than worth it. My dad is a lot like that.
As a lot of Americans are realizing though, the pursuit of more stuff as a main reason for existance is just becoming sad. There's no relationship attached to the spending. It's stuff for the sake of stuff. This Christmas season has that feel. Everything you read talks about how retailers are worried about their books balancing, so they're encouraging people to buy more. In our times where family isn't coming through as much as it has in the past, I doubt most of that spending is happening to better a relationship, strengthen a father/daughter bond, or bless a home.
Banksey is a famous graffitti artist from England and I found this picture of Jesus by him.
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