[00:00.00]For many merchants, Christmas
[00:03.27]has become the economic
[00:04.69]boom season of the year.
[00:07.32]It is estimated that
[00:09.50]a major percentage of the annual
[00:11.36]yield of revenue from sales
[00:13.44]is generated during the month
[00:15.74]or more of intense
[00:17.71]Christmas shopping before Christmas.
[00:19.89]As a matter of fact,
[00:22.31]there has been some debate
[00:24.27]for years that Christmas
[00:26.24]has become too commercialized
[00:28.32]and that the true meaning of
[00:30.29]Christmas is gradually disappearing.
[00:32.26]An escalating tendency has been
[00:37.95]to buy more and more
[00:39.26]expensive gifts each year.
[00:41.56]Some people go into debt,
[00:43.64]sometimes owing more than
[00:46.04]they can easily pay back.
[00:47.90]Some people are personally
[00:50.42]beginning to rethink
[00:52.06]this commercial approach to Christmas.
[00:55.89]However, toy manufacturers and
[00:58.08]their contemporaries in advertising
[01:00.60]make a killing during this period.
[01:03.11]Christmas shopping hits a peak
[01:06.06]on Boxing Day, the day after Christmas,
[01:09.57]when stores offer great discounts
[01:11.97]to unload the unsold Christmas merchandise.
[01:17.00]This is usually the busiest
[01:18.86]shopping day of the year.
[01:21.27]Christmas has spread far
[01:24.44]and wide across the globe.
[01:26.85]My wife and I lived
[01:28.27]in Beijing last year.
[01:30.13]During the Christmas season,
[01:32.44]we saw many Christmas decorations
[01:34.73]and heard a lot of
[01:36.81]western Christmas music in department stores.
[01:40.75]It seemed little different
[01:42.71]from Toronto, Canada.
[01:45.12]We celebrated Christmas much
[01:48.07]as we would have in Canada,
[01:49.93]except that we weren’t with
[01:52.67]our families in our homes
[01:54.21]during that very special family
[01:56.07]oriented holiday season.
[01:59.59]We have great memories of Christmases
[02:02.00]of the past and
[02:03.31]look forward to many more great
[02:05.40]Christmas memories in the future |