How has Christmas changed for you?

I'm still very young but I remember when I was little how it was much nicer and warmer feeling when Christmas was here. On the night before Christmas we would take out or tree and put decorations on it, the whole family, and in the morning we all together would open up our presents and admire them, and then we would go together to the morning mass to bless our food. And then we would eat together. Today, we just put presents under the tree whenever we have time, in the morning there is barely someone at house and everything seems just so cold in this later years.. I guess that's just the way it is, traditions and holidays don't mean so much as they did before..

Sadly Christmas doesn't have the same excitement or meaning to me now, ok so I am not a child, but I think even children don't have the same excitement towards Christmas (as per your other discussion). I blame commercialism and technology for the way Christmas is seen and what it now means to people. Christmas is about spend spend spend, and this is what society now expects. Christmas in my family has changed, whereas as a child and certainly into my teens we would all sit around the table and play board games and card games, now all dad wants to do is watch Sky! I sit in my room on the computer or watching dvds on my own and my mum watches tv in her room, it's not a family occasion, it's just another weekend, with the exception of opening gifts. Even the wonderful roasts mum makes she does all year round. So Christmas is no different apart from receiving a huge unwanted bill in January for the expense! It's a shame I would love to go back to the way it was in the 70s. But that will sadly never happen. I wonder what Christmas will be like in fifty years time. I dread to think. The true meaning has well and truly got lost and forgotten.

Hi Pose: Even if I'm just 23 years old I think it's quite different. When I was a little kid we share more time in our families. Now I think that the kids are taught to be more materialistic and care only about the things the market are offering to them. My parents told me that Christmas used to be more simple before but they were all more about the family and love rather than the things you can buy. ALVARO

I was born in the 70s and I remember having a real tree when I was younger. It was not until I was a sophomore in high school where we would buy an artificial tree and decorate it the day after Thanksgiving. We got mostly things we needed, but we also got a few toys as well. In our stockings we got candy, hair bows and pens and penicils. Now that I am married my husband and I buy some cute things and also some things we need. when my husband and I have kids we are hoping to show them the true meaning of Christmas buy making homemade gifts and having them buy a gify for those who are less fortunate than ourselves.

I think that in many ways, as compared to my childhood, Christmas doesn't really feel like Christmas until a few days before it happens. There were a lot of times in the past where I had geared up for the Christmas season for weeks and weeks before hand, but then right at this moment, the Christmas mood just not has completely struck me as of yet. I notice in this day and age, there seem to be a lot more elaborate gifts. Even compared to the 1990s, where action figures for the boys and dolls for the girls were the rage, these days, it is elaborate electronics a lot of the time. There are just going to be a lot of times where the newest gadgets are under the tree. I'd imagine things are just going to get more elaborate.

Christmas was bad for me my cousin was diagnosed with leukemia and we need to sped alot money for him the problem is we don't have soo much money it is necessary 300.000$ and we try to get them hard so this christmas won't be a good one for me whatever if someone want to help my cousin can send money via paypal at my email adress maxim_marco_laurentiu@yahoo.com and if you want a proof of the fact check this http://xsoftcharity.ucoz.com/ thx for everyone who help me

well my dad passed away a couple of years ago and my kids are getting older but i have to say, i like the old days when (before i was born but have heard this from elderly aunts) when they got one or two presents and fruit in their stockings (oranges because Christmas was the only time they were available, not like now) and a gift of clothing because you needed it. i love history so i have listend to all the stories. it is sad that times like this have changed. i heard that the average canadian will spend upwards of $400 on gifts for friends and families, that is crazy and it is no wonder half the world is in debt.

Christmas to me is a time to spent with my family and to celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. Is a time for reflection and to express our love for those in need.

It has changed. Too commercial for me.....but I guess it's basically what you make of it. I love the giving part. When I was young it was more simple. We did have a tree up before Christmas morning but the gifts were small like you said.....and maybe one good one. Otherwise it was what mom and dad could afford. I still love the decorating....my mother decked our house all out! I love everything about the season so emotionally it's pretty much the same.....

I think the single biggest change I have seen is in the lights we decorate with. I remember my Dad having to untangle and test the lights first thing once the tree arrived. That tangle of lights remained part of Christmas during most of my childhood. I remember thinking at the time that there had to be a better way to store those lights. When I had my first Christmas in my own home, the lights were much easier to store, but they were still the big bulbs and often one would go out and take out the whole string, much time was used finding that one bad bulb. Then came bulbs that were wired so that only the bad one would go out. But over the years I would say more time has been spent on Christmas lights then any other part of decoration.

Christmas back then was more centered on Christ than it is now. Our Christmas was, and still is, a time of celebrating the birth of Christ.

It is easier to remember the true meaning of Christmas as an adult.