Inevitably, the holiday season is the golden opportunity for receiving presents and holiday shopping filled with irresistible discounts and deals. So much of a golden opportunity, actually, that the focus of the holiday season has completely shifted from religion, generosity, and spending time together with family and friends to buying, spending, and receiving new clothes and gadgets.

Christmas is a widely celebrated holiday by many in this country. In a religious aspect, Christmas is the annual commemoration of the birth of Jesus Christ. Junior David Gomez said, “In Christianity, Christmas is a time of joy but also [a time] of reflection and renewal to ask the Lord to help one be a new ‘man.’”

While Christmas may be a religious holiday, little to no emphasis is put on the religious aspect of the holiday by the media. Therefore, the whole concept of reflection and renewal is lost by many because of the flood of discounts and sales that many stores have around this time of year.

Traditionally, Christmas and many other holidays involve exchanging presents. At any mall during the holiday season, there’s a whole trail of little children waiting to sit on Santa’s lap to tell him what they want for Christmas. This is encouraged by many parents, some of who even assist their children in making their holiday wish lists.

How many young children are making lists of what they want to give others for the holidays? Are there any children—is there anybody, regardless of age—making a list of what to give others? Does the act of giving come from the heart anymore, or have people become slaves of the belief that it is a must to give presents in order to receive presents? Is giving, motivated only by self-interest?

Perhaps the main cause for this interest in “getting” is the sales and discounts that go on around the holiday season. It’s rather tempting to want to buy something that you’ve been eying all year. But it is very easy to get swept away and focus only on the sales. Sophomore Joyce Camille Hernandez said, “For religious people, the holiday season is about the birth of Jesus, not about the discounts or what you get.”

Regardless of whether or not you celebrate Christmas (or any other holiday around this time of year, for that matter) for religious reasons, the commercialization of this season is a reason why we need to step back and take a look at how materialistic this nation as a whole has become due to the slew of sales, discounts, and opportunities for receiving presents.

This materialistic nature has shown its effects on the family aspect of the holiday season. Any celebration brings people together. The holiday season is the time of year where people travel to be with their families. But the shopping and worrying about what to get everyone interferes with what is quintessentially important about the holiday season.

Christmas or any other holiday—regardless of why you celebrate it—should be a time of reflection and family and an opportunity to exercise behavior that exemplifies the good morals that any holiday promotes.