I heard about a talk show on the radio today. They were asking listeners about which Christmas song was the most played on the radio. Some people called in and said things like Away in a Manger and O Holy Night. The radio host was amazed that people would guess such absurd songs. He made it sound like they were idiotic for even thinking those songs were in the Top 10. The songs in the top ten were ones that didn’t have anything to do with Christ, like Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Let it Snow. I was wondering, Why would these songs be in the Top 10 and ones centered around Christ aren’t even close? Do they just like the more upbeat songs? Are the ones about Christ too slow? I think the real reason is because a large majority of people today are losing sight of what Christmas is truly all about. I heard a statistic that said that Americans would be spending like 400 billion dollars this year on Christmas gifts alone. I would say that’s a pretty good signal that Christmas is being commercialized. If we only took 10 percent of what we would be planing to spend on Christmas presents, 40 billion in this case, and used it to buy things or give micro-credits to people in Africa or the Middle East, just think of how fast we could build those countries up. We would be providing 40 billlion not just one time, but every single year. After just 10 years, we would have given 400 billion dollars. After a century, 4 trillion dollars. That’s a lot of money. It could do a lot of good. Doing things like that would be celebrating the true meaning of Christmas. The true meaning of Christmas is about service, charity, and love; certainly not about the stockings above the fireplace or the gifts under the Christmas tree(around the Christmas tree now, with how big they are and how many people are buying) I think something needs to change in this society. Think of how much peace would be wrought on the Earth by only giving a little bit each year. I think that would be a true Christmas gift.