Every year about this time, people rush to the stores and strain their budget on gifts, decorations, and greeting cards. Then they come home, fall back in a chair and complain. They complain about how tired they are arid about how much money they spent and about how they ache from putting lights up around the house. Above all, they complain that Christmas has lost its meaning, that Christmas is now just a big business.

Yet, to some, Christmas is the anniversary of the birth of Jesus. To these people, the "real meaning of Christmas" is not lost, but thriving and present all around.

Where is the real meaning of Christmas hiding? Certainly not in the toy department of any large department store. There the only meaning of Christmas is signified by the sound of ringing cash registers. Is the meaning of Christmas hiding, unseen, in the home? No, because there children babble about the coming of Santa Claus. The coming of Christmas is seldom mentioned.

Certainly the people who believe in the real Christmas cannot be mistaken? There must be evidence of it somewhere. There are organizations that urge people to practice charity. Some people do, but others are too intent on listening to a sales clerk to hear them.

So the people complain. Every year Christ is left further and further behind, and every year manufacturers are getting bigger and bigger profits. More money is being spent on Christmas than ever before. There is every indication that this trend will continue to rise. If the people wish to reverse this trend they must stop encouraging commercialism. Businesses produce Christmas items because there is a large market for them. After all, if Christmas is too commercial, whose fault is it?

It is sad that for many Christmas has lost its real meaning. But beneath all the toys and bright lights, the Christmas star still shines.