As I turned on the TV Thanksgiving day, commercials immediately flashed at me displaying “amazing” holiday deals. My mailbox was overflowing with holiday catalogs screaming out the same messages: “Six hour sale!” “The best deals of the holidays!” “First 100 customers only!” A month ago I stepped into the mall only to find banners featuring holiday shopping. A time of year that is meant to observe religious holidays has been commercialized.

No longer are the sentiments of this time of year warm and benevolent. The only way in which the holidays are portrayed as giving is in the gifts people buy for one another. Friends and family are assessed based on the quality of the gifts they give. Unwanted gifts are thrown away or returned for store credit. The winter holidays are no longer a time valued for their religious meanings.

A knit scarf isn’t a present a child and adult alike would swoon over anymore. No, now gifts have to be flashier, louder, more technical, and more expensive. Decorations have to be the best in the neighborhood, Christmas trees the tallest. And when comparing their holiday breaks, children compare the amount of gifts they received as a number game.

It seems as though companies saw a window of opportunity in gift giving during this season and latched on. Holidays that were once celebrated to focus on some religious event or principle now have their spotlights turned toward gifts.

Take Christmas, for example. Gifts were not associated with Christmas ages ago. It wasn’t until Three Kings Day that Jesus supposedly received presents from the three magi. If the idea of Christmas religiously is to celebrate the birth of Jesus, then exchanging gifts goes against the events of the holiday’s origin.

Even the media have caught onto the profit available during the holidays. Starting at Thanksgiving, holiday movies fill the theaters. Each year there’s a new spin, a different singing snowman or greedy man who becomes giving. These movies are largely successful because people want to watch them.

There are many people who would argue the festivities of the holidays are a tradition that they find much joy in. I can relate to the excitement of writing up a holiday wish or gift list. My favorite time of year is during the holiday season. Many people enjoy this time not only because of the break and snow, but because of the very elements that are artificial. The food and presents are among the top things people anticipate and enjoy about the holidays. The very components that were originally not associated with the holidays are now their signature.

The “meaning of the holidays” had become pretty hazy over the years. Regardless, people seem to remember what the holidays originally expressed. Is it that they don’t know how to return to those days, or that they prefer the holidays the way they are now: commercialized?