Christmas spirit or Christian spirit?

I have volunteered for several years during the holiday season for different organizations, and I keep having the same experiences year after year....people are RUDE, and more importantly the people that are being helped are the rudiest! Over the years, I have gotten a bitter taste and slowly as the years have gone by, I volunteer less and less. Nothing beats the look on someones face when they have no expectations and you hand them anything and their face lights up as if you gave them the whole entire world....its the warmest soul food you could ever experience and maybe thats why I LOVE international missions. People in America just dont seem grateful and I really think because they havent experienced poverty. I see them coming up with new ways to beat the rules and systems in place to provide for everyone and yet they find ways to benefit their family leaving other families without. I see people signed up that really dont belong there, they just know where and when to grab a handout, yet I see other families struggle and not tell a single sole because they dont want to ask for a handout. I might be a Grinch and be the most hated person in the world for saying this but toys for Christmas are not a necessity and yet they have become a priority. Christmas should not be about toys and it has become that to our greedy society. If we really wanted to help people during the holidays, find the people that need food, blankets, toothbrushes, pillows, shoes, etc. These angel trees are getting worse every year. You go in sign up, prove you have "no money", make out your wish list for your kids and collect what other people bought for you only after completely the entire list of everything your kids want...WHAT A JOKE! The impression that we are leaving on our kids is that you dont have to work for anything when people will pay your way through life and we wonder why or society and culture is the way that it is. How did we go from working to provide for your family and enjoying the holidays off and eating a great meal and spending time with relatives to the craziness of money and lavish gifts. Since when did Christmas gifts go to a itemized shopping list of wants? If your bills are paid and you have money overflowing, do what you want with it....but for those of us who work paycheck to paycheck and rob Peter to pay Paul STOP borrowing and maxing out money you dont have to give kids what they dont need, instead take your kids and give a gift to someone in true need so they can learn the difference. I believe if you have more than your able to give more. God gives us resources of time and money to do his will with it, we are his shepherds and managers. If you do well, you are entrusted with more. If you dont grasp the priciples of farming with God 101, you start small and either lose or build from there. You have the ability to change lives in a major way. You will be remembered to someone when you make a difference and invest in their lives, versus buying something materialistic they used or grew out of. Christmas is a celebration of the birth of Jesus, not you or your kids therefore you dont need gifts. If being Christians is being Christ like then how come we dont do things Jesus would do to honor him? Who and what are we really honoring by buying more STUFF? Im not judging you for what you do with your family, Ive done the same thing, Ive bought into Christmas, but Ive had a heart change as the seasons in my life change. I feel like church people are once again punching in their spiritual time clock by swinging by, grabbing an angel, marking off the list and turning in only to drive away and never think of the family or person they bought for other than that was fun and I gave to someone that wanted it...punch, giving is done for the year...NO! Im not arguing that there are not people in need, Im telling you there are people in need all year long not just at Christmas and that needs are necessities and wants are ridiculous and if a person is in need bad enough you will see it on their face when you hand them something of value that they need to keep going. This is the true meaning of Christmas doing something in honor of Christ, but if your a Christian than this is the true meaning of Christianity and it isnt only done one time of year. Please select your charities carefully and bless someone who needs what you give them not wants it to be temporarily happy or even disappointed about the brand, kind, or color. Majority of people around me do not agree with me and thats ok, but some just dont know what happens at some of these charities and organizations and some have never thought about all this as they dropped off their list of gifts for angel tree that seems to get more expensive every year. When I was growing up, my mom took me to the dollar store to pick out something for someone else....do you know why? Because thats what we could afford and wanted another kid to have a Christmas gift. The last couple years I bought for an angel was a couple hundred dollars and yet my kids didnt even get a couple hundred dollars worth of gifts....why? Because we dont spend that kind of money on our kids wants, but their needs are taken care of. Christmas season just keeps getting bigger and better every year, but all for the wrong celebration and the wrong reasons. Can we please bring CHRIST back into CHRISTMAS and CHRISTIAN into CHRISTIANITY?