Tradition of Christmas Gift Giving
The tradition of gift giving started with the three wise men bringing gifts to Jesus, and people still give gifts today to symbolize those gifts and to show their appreciation for others.
People might be asking what is the history of all of this gift giving. It all started back when Jesus was only a baby when the three wise men came and brought him gifts. The first gift that was brought was gold. Gold meant kingship on earth. The second was Frankincense, a symbol of deity. The third and final gift was Myrrh know for death. Thi event started the tradition of the giving of gifts.
Many years later, 336 AD, the tradition of giving became even more popular. It began to spread around the world. People even made up myths and stories to bring excitement to children. These stories were told by families about a man named Santa Claus, who would bring children gifts if they were nice. The excitement of receiving and opening gifts become so great that some even started opening one gift before Christmas day. Christmas, the holiday of giving and receiving gifts became an official for the U.S. in the 19th century. It seems that at times the real meaning of Christmas gets lost in all the buying and spending that happens at Christmas time today.
Is all this joy and happiness worth all this money spent? Some argue that spending all this money is not worth it. Some children still complain and don’t even like their gifts. Many people even forget what gifts they got the year before. So why do people continue to spend on average around 1,000 dollars. Many people have to borrow that money so they can have enough to buy all the gifts the give at Christmas. Even the U.S. spent 4 billion dollars on Christmas. On the flip side, it can help businesses and even some charities bring in gifts for families that can’t get the good stuff in life. Christmas usually helps start food drives for soldiers that fight each day for us to live free and have the ability to celebrate the Christmas season that we all love so much. Food drives also help feed the homeless men and women that are struggling to bring in food for the ones they love.
Do we really know what people do with their gifts? Well, some people do good things with them. Seniors will give their gifts to charities, which is probably the best or one of the greatest things that a person can do with the gifts. Also people with exchange them with their loved ones or give them to their kids. Then you have some people who will sell their gifts to people to get more money. Even some people just throw them away, when they can give them to charities. Many just give them back to people they got them from. About 50% goes back to the person who gave it to them. Which can show how much some people don’t care about the gifts that were given to him or her.
If they’re so bad then why do people keep gift giving? People think it is how special the feeling is when you give a gift. Or because their parents loved it as a child so they want to continue the tradition of gift giving. People loved the feeling so much they wrote stories to tell how they felt when it was Christmas Eve. Kids could even talk their parents into more and more presents each year.
The tradition of gift giving started with the three wise men bringing gifts to Jesus, and people still give gifts to symbolize their appreciation. As people can clearly see Christmas can be good or bad for some people. Many people either love the idea of the gifts under the Christmas tree. And some dread the cost of the gifts that they feel the need to pay for. All in all, Christmas is the most wonderful time of year or it is the worst time of year for the people that celebrate Christmas.
