I know that children – and children at heart – all leap for joy whenever the winter months come around. It’s as if some sort of magic is cast at this time of the year and people all around the world are enchanted by it. Without doubt, it’s really the grandest, most anticipated, and universally accepted holiday of the year.
But wait, have I mentioned that it’s also the most expensive, wasteful, and overly extravagant holiday since time immemorial?
Yes, behind Christmas’s joyful façade lies a pretty harsh truth. It’s not the colorful and happy holiday we are all made to believe – at least for the most part.
We often see Christmas as the “most wonderful time of the year.” I’m pretty sure that the exact same line was even used in a classic Christmas song once. Indeed, Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year. It is filled with hope, love, sharing, and forgiveness. Everyone is just willing to go the extra mile to celebrate the yuletide season. Families and friends exchange gifts, they share intimate dinners together, and they all make time just to be together. It is indeed wonderful to see people come together and set aside work and other priorities in the name of family and tradition.
However, it is also exactly this attitude of being “extra” that’s causing so many problems AFTER Christmas.
Of course you wouldn’t see it; most people wouldn’t even notice! Before Serenata Flowers helped me realize the seriousness of the situation, never have I even batted an eyelash to the reality of Christmas. After all, we’re so busy with the festivities; too busy opening gifts and exchanging Christmas cards to actually see the bigger picture.
But now that Christmas is over, I would like to make a point.
How many presents have you opened this year? I’m thinking ten, maybe twenty? Well, aren’t you lucky?
How many dinners did you attend? Was there tons of food? You were probably stuffed beyond imagination!
How did you decorate your home? I bet you went all out with a natural Christmas tree and gorgeous garlands.
While I’m very happy that you enjoyed your Christmas, let me rephrase these questions for you:
How many gift wrappers have you ripped apart this year? Are they even made of decomposable paper? I’m pretty sure they went straight to the trash.
How much food went to waste? Surely, all the dinners you attended prepared quite the feast!
How much decoration did you throw away this year? You can’t preserve a natural Christmas tree now, can you?
Thing is, we are so busy celebrating Christmas that we forget the whole point of it. We’re so busy preparing the most rad year-end parties without thinking through the consequences. Annually, we produce a million ton of waste because of Christmas festivities. And we do it consistently, year after year. Mother Nature can’t take much more of it. It’s only a matter of time before all our careless traditions would backfire on us. Let’s not wait until that happens.
Let’s celebrate Christmas. But let us celebrate it responsibly.
