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Holidays Don't Have Receipts

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By Hernando Caicedo / The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 22, 2007

With Christmas approaching fast, the next couple of weeks will bring the seasonal decorations and sights that shine every year. Among the green and red lights, the eggnog and the menorah, another seasonal spectacle will emerge.

I call it the holiday debt. Some prefer to call it holiday shopping, but regardless the effect is the same: a shopping madness unlike any other. Beginning the day after Thanksgiving, what once were family SUVs and vans become menacing, crazed shopping tanks backing traffic up for hours at malls throughout the bay.

I went to the movies after Thanksgiving dinner with some friends and family. On my way there, I saw the modern family pastime: sitting in a tent with food and a small television outside of Best Buy waiting for the doors to open to take part in the "black Friday" craze.

When I was younger, the holidays meant driving through neighborhoods looking at all the Christmas lights, searching for the house with the biggest and brightest decorations, or going to local church plays and holiday shows.

Regardless of what holiday is being celebrated, December is a time when families of all backgrounds come together and are supposed to share time and acknowledge the meaning and value of the holidays.

With all the commercialization going on today, the holidays have become a mere mask for retailers to cash in on consumer spending, slowly erasing the essence of their true purpose. Not only are large retailers to blame, but in part we also are at fault for losing the spirit of the season as we become more and more fixated on spending money.

Malls are packed with shoppers buzzing around like bees, maxing out credit cards to buy their loved ones gifts. Christmas is becoming a time where we have found a way to say, "I love you ... this many dollars' worth."

In a time where kids are being raised by video games and television, parents still flock to spend money on toys that babysit their children. The next generation, which I have dubbed the "I want it" generation, is growing up in a time where what you buy means more than why you buy.

In fact, I sat down and asked a group of children what Christmas meant to them and I got two answers: Santa and gifts.

The fact that shopping is a part of the holiday season is not a bad thing; the problem stems from the fact that shopping has overshadowed other events and opportunities for people to truly come together and realize that without family and loved ones, there are no presents.

Besides shopping there are many things to do; just by reading the local newspaper one can find many holiday events taking place every week. There are events such as the Rockettes and the Channelside snowfalls and many other holiday festivities worth attending. Tampa Bay has so much to offer families during the holiday season, yet the malls are where most families gather each and every weekend

Perhaps this season, rather than paying for the "perfect" gift or shopping till you drop, you might want to consider checking out your neighborhood and taking part in some of the festivities around the bay and all it offers, not just malls and gifts.

Hernando Caicedo is a mass communications major at the University of South Florida and an improvisation and acting enthusiast.

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