Christmas

Hey blog! so Christmas...where to begin. Well, I guess I can start off by telling you about my experience at Sax Fifth avenue this month. If youd didn't already know, Sax Fifth avenue is an extremeky ritzy, high fashion, EXPENSIVE store. My choir had alittle concert there before christmas, and it was quite the experience. When I fist walked into the store,( which keep in mind, has three floors, and is HUGE) I saw women in fur coats, trying on 800 dollar pairs of shoes, 10 year olds saying "mommy can I have this?" and families rushing around buying, buying, spending, spending. I felt sick to my stomach. It seemed that all christmas was to them was about money, presents, and spending, spending, SPENDING. as I passed by a girl and her mother, standing next to my friend, the tween girl shouted out to my friend (of about the same age) flashing her hands in her face, and saying "I just got a manicure! look!" while the mother stood their smiling. It was disgusting. And what was worse, was that almost all the girls in my choir were infatuated by the designer bags, and casimir sweaters...they were hypnotized as I was more disgusted than I had ever been. It was sad, as I was thinking about third world countries, and families here in the U.S that can't even afford to pay the bills, let alone buy any christmas gifts at all for their children, their families. AS we were singing, my mind drifted off (go figure) and I started thinking about what presants were for. I thougth about all the extravagent gifts my friends recieve on christmas, only to hate them, or become sick of them a few months later. I was angry. I decided rigth then and there that I wasnt going to take part in that.
The next night at the dinner table, while everything was quiet, I sat there moving my food around on my plate and said "I have an Idea." I told them about my thoughts at Sax. I said "I don't want to exchange gifts this year." well, not to say I didn't WANT gifts, because seriously, what teen DOESENT want gifts? uh, no one :). My mom and dad just sat there and said "are you sure?" I said "yeah..I mean...if you are" My brother looked up from his food and joined in in agreedment. It was a huge step.
On christmas day, I woke up at my grandparents house,a nd went down stairs to see many gifts under the tree. "mom...?" she came over to me and just said "you'll see" I said, "But I thought we werent gonna do this this year.. "just wait she said." as she laughed a little and walked off.
When it was tiome to gather around the tree, I noticed that none of the gifts under the tree had names on them. we all picked up different gifts and opened them. My first gift had a box of nails, hadn sanitizer, and a pair of huge reading glasses in them. I looked up confused, and then burst out laughing. To my surprise Everyone else was laughing too! My mom explained that everyone pitched in and went out and baught stupid gag gifts from the dollar tree as a joke. nothing was over two dollars. It was hilarious. My next gift had a huge plastic gem ring, and I put it on, to go with my humongus reading glasses. My brother got a box of staples, and a bungee cord.
So this christmas was different. But I also learned that you dont need to spend a lot of money to have a good christmas. Because it's not about the gifts. I had a hilarious time on christmas and I don't regret anything. We had a nice dinner together, and remembered the birth of Jesus, which is the most important part. We played games, and baked cookies and had a great time.
So my Christmas, ....yeah, it was different allright. But it was a good one.
I hope yours was too :D

-Zoe