Christmas , now vs then.

I think people have forgotten the Christmas spirit, I love Christmas especially decorating, I agree with you the Christmas spirit has alot to do with it. We always cook alot, my daughter and I love to bake cookies. We have had this tradition since she was a baby.

My daughters, who are grown mothers also, and I every year have the discussion about gifts and so on. The three of us and their families live separately, but not too far apart. We have always made our tradition Christmas Eve. We usually spend little or no money for each other, but recognize the lovliness of simply being together, all of us at once with the children, playing games, reading stories, and eating (not pigging out) scrumptious Christmas things. We have all been looking at our spending habits, and seeing that in general, buying stuff has not made any of us happy. I have been without credit cards for almost 15 years. My oldest daughter just cut up her credit cards last month. My youngest daughter and husband moved from the huge house to a smaller more affordable home... to save their marriage and family relationship, which was suffering greatly under the strain. I have to say, that I am so proud of their consciousness in this area. Christmas has become such a burden for most of us, required gifts at the office, for the family, for the book club, for the teacher, for the best friends. So much has become obligatory. And while some of it often cannot be avoided without a big deal, there are ways to be more creative in all these arenas. When Christmas loses its light for good, I imagine we are in a bit of trouble. It's worth the effort to keep it alive.

IN MY COUNTRY I DON'T OBSERVE ANY DIFERENCE BETWEEN NOW AND 20 YEARS AGO..

I'm 22 yrs old but I do feel the difference of now vs then...then=when i was little......I really truly feel like the holidays are special for little kids and older adults(children and grandparents) For the past couple of years christmas feels like any other day!

Yes I agree that for a lot of people the christmas spirit is gone. My family is lucky enough to have held on to it. My mother and I are very into the christmas spirit and it is, as always our favorite time of the year. My children and I decorate the house, go up into the mountains and not only pick out our own tree, but go pine nut hunting as well. Then we make our own tree decorations, bake our favorite cookies for santa, leave 9 carrots out for the reindeer. The boys open there one night before gift that is always a new warm set of Pj's. We go caroling, and my mother and I trade off year to year on whose house we have supper at ect.... Yes for most spirit is gone, but we have held on.

I think Christmas has become more and more commercialized and less personal and traditional. There seems to be more stress associated with it - I've seen advice on how to deal with holiday stress popping up everywhere in the last few years. People stress on what to give, they stress over what they're getting, they stress over decorating the house just so-so, and they stress over the Christmas menu a lot more than they used to. Everyone seems to be on display, wanting the world to think they're perfect. Sorry, got off on a tangent. Anyway, I've noticed that store clerks are especially stressed, with few smiles and -heaven forbid!- "Merry Christmas" is no longer correct. "Happy Holidays" just doesn't get it.

I Love Christmas and I do think it is a magical time. I think people worry to much about how much money they are going to spend and what will they buy. Christmas has become to comercial and we need to remember why we celebrate it in the first place, and enjoy our family and friends.

We're doing our part to try to keep the magic alive in children with our website. http://www.thenicelist.com

The magic of Christmas is what you make it... We follow certain traditions in my house and they dd to the festivity. If things are changing spice it back up yourself...anything in life is only going to be as good as you make it.

Sarah your are absolutely correct except I can't say 20 yrs ago cause im only 18..lol Only minorities of people enjoy christmas the same as always.

I agree that the magic seems to be gone now as compared with twenty years ago, but I think this is because we are no longer children.

The reason the magic is gone is because people don't celebrate his birth like they should and people are trying to take God out of everything.