It’s the wintertime again, and people are rushing for last minute holiday shopping. However, the rapidly commercializing world seems to be taking over the majority of the Christmas holiday.

“A lot of people see Christmas as that time of year when you get presents, and there are decorations everywhere,” junior Cherry Wang said. “If a stranger was visiting, they wouldn’t be able to tell what the true purpose of the holiday is without asking someone directly.”

Though many still believe in the idea that the popular winter holiday is about giving to others and appreciating loved ones, Christmas is associated with a massive amount of shopping for gifts and other marketing images. Around the end of year, there are holiday sales and promotions from many stores, encouraging people to spend more during the winter.

Junior Swathi Nair said, “There was an incident last year when I went grocery shopping during Christmas time. It was so difficult to just find anything because they had re-decorated the whole store and all I could find were Christmas chocolates, cakes, cookies, and decorations. It took me so long to find mere eggs and milk!”

According to Statistic Brain, around 52 billion U.S. dollars are spent each year during the Christmas season, proving that this time of year causes a massive amount of money to be spent. This is also in part due to expensive Christmas items being in stock specifically for the holiday shoppers.

“Often when you ask someone about Christmas, the first thing they recall will be ‘presents,'” said Nair. “We often overlook the parts of spending time with family and friends. Also the good food and the Christmas games. Nowadays it’s all about buying something that will make you look superior to others than actually buying something for happiness. A lot of people buy super expensive gifts because they just wanna be cool. Everything has become a comparison and competition, and it is pretty upsetting.”

Many believe in spreading the “holiday cheer,” especially with many commercial products that encourage a jovial and bright attitude that people associate with the wintertime season.

“There is so much merchandising in stores during the winter. Colors of red and green are everywhere, it can be really overwhelming,” junior Sonia Mahajan said. “Christmas merchandise is festive and nice. It’s also insulting to the religions since it’s a really American holiday.”

Some see the commercialization of Christmas as a nice way to get ready for Christmas.

“Commercializing Christmas helps people find best deals and often helps put people in the spirit of Christmas,” Nair said. “It keeps people in the spirit of buying presents.”

Despite there being much commercializing of Christmas, people are still able to keep the values of the holiday while indulging in commercialized products.