Although December is a month filled with joy and love, it is overwhelmingly occupied by material objects.

Christmas is a Christian celebration of the birth of Jesus, and although not everyone practices the christian part, they celebrate it with their families.

This joyous holiday is slowly turning into a drowning pit of money and stress.

Recently I was at Bath and Body Works and they were having a candle sale; $14 off.

It was not even Black Friday and the lines lead into the parking lot. People were going crazy over candles. It made me think, although they have good intentions of probably giving the candles as gifts to their loved ones, this is getting out of hand.

This time of love and comfort is turning into a chaotic mess, simply because the stress of everything is so overwhelming.

Instead of focusing so much on the perfect thing to buy your perfect person, we should be thinking of the perfect way to spend time with them.

The company of family and friends is turning into a competition of who can buy the best gift.

The obsession of Christmas music, sales, and overly lit houses is truly getting to be over kill.

I do not mean to be a “Grinch” but Christmas should not be so materialized.

And it is true that most people give a lot during Christmas because it is one of the only times in the year to show your appreciation for someone special, so it is easy to see where those people are coming from.

“To me Christmas is one of the happiest times of my year. My whole family gets together and we celebrate our faith and love for each other,” sophomore Jenelle Alberts said. “I think that most people think Christmas is about giving and no giving is too much.”

This holiday season relax from the Facebook posts and snapchats of your meals and all of your presents under your tree, and let’s all try to spend genuine time with the important people in our life.

“Humans have become so self absorbed, in a way that they have turned christmas into a materialistic mess of sales and gifts,” senior Kalyn Smith said.

Whether you believe that this season is about the birth of Jesus or simply family, taking a break from social media and the obsession of objects can only make your holiday season more rich and real.