just let me explain. When I was a kid, I didn't have the christmas I saw my friends have.

I grew up in a family that wasn't religious whatsoever, or even had that much money, so

around the holiday's we didn't really do much. My sister and I got gifts, but it was more

like, thoughtful gifts, than expensive fancy ones.

In hindsight, complaining about that sounds ridiculous, but as a kid I was always comparing

my own experiences to my friends, and uh, it bothered me.

Hey man what'd you get for christmas?

I... *sighs*

But what bothered me more than that was how we never did CHRISTMAS things. We didn't set

up trees, do stockings, Santa didn't come. I could see the excitement for the season

everywhere I looked, but I never got to experience it. The only thing I really could do during

christmas was spend time with my family and friends. And so that's what christmas has

always been for me. Looking back, sure, I wish that we sang christmas carols and set

up a tree and did christmas things, but I'm glad that I didn't grow up viewing christmas

as that time of year when my my parents just spend a lot of money on me, cause I see a

lot of people who look at it as just that. Like I'm not following these people home or

anything, but I gotta assume that they just go up to their parents like

wassup mom, dad. Here's a list of all the gifts I'll be recieving for christmas. now

I'm not sure what your budget is, so I just wrote it in order of priority, So you can

just start from the top and work your way down.

Don't get me wrong, I mean I love things. I have a smartphone, a tablet, two TV's, and

a ton of other stuff. and without any of it, I wouldn't be able to communicate with my

friends in other countries or be on social media. but one thing that I've always thought

was really important was the ability to put all that stuff down, and just talk to people.

I think it's actually kind of ironic because my job requires me to be active on social

media, yet there's a lot of people who I hang out with who have a way harder time putting

down their phone than I do. and this happens often enough that I'm realizing I'M the weird

one!

What the...?

I think it's time we gave THIS GUY a little time off and focused a little more on OUR conversation.

no thanks.

And I think it's especially important around the holidays. Because now, as an adult, I'm

able to make up for all the christmas's I never had. So I've been making little traditions

that I try to follow every year to get some of that sweet christmas spirit that I always

wanted. Now, granted, some of these traditions might be more.. annoying than others..

*singing along to song* Over the fields we go, laughing all the way! HA. HA. HA!

Tis the season... WHAT. YEAH!

We wish you a merry christmas, and a happy new year. -talkin to you fella's.

but my favourite one by far is an annual christmas party I throw.

I get everyone who I consider to be a close friend in one room and we just

hang out and talk all night. It's honestly probably

my favourite day of the year, and it's so simple. My point is that I don't actually

hate Christmas. I hate what every commercial and bilboard we see is trying to sell it as.

They call it the "spirit of giving" but that's just so that they can sell more products.

I always saw giving as a symbolic gesture. Like sure, I'll give you a gift, but it's

cause I care about you, not cause I owe you one. Or just giving them the gift of your

time, which I think is the best way to show that you care. I mean it's either that, or

an e-card.

Oh hey.. I just got an e-card from my best friend.

I feel so.. loved.

Thank you for watching this video, I hope that you enjoyed it.

And if you did, let me know by giving it a thumbs up.

I also want to give a big thank you to Telus for helping make this video happen. If you

don't know what Telus is, they're a big service provider in Canada, so they would actually

profit if we never put our phones down. But they're basically doing the exactly opposite

of what anyone would expect and encouraging people to expect more over

the holidays. Not just gifts, but like, real human interaction. The best present, is the

human presence. They call it putting your phone in "holiday mode" which as you can see

by this adorable sweater on my phone, basically just means putting it down and enjoying the

season. And honestly I love this. Like especially with my christmas situation, the whole "holiday

mode" idea is just exactly my feelings towards the holidays. So if you want to find out more

about Telus and the #expectmore campaign, I put a link in the description and I highly

recommend you go check it out.

This was really just my perspective of Christmas, and I've never really shared it online so I'm curious to hear what you guys think.

What do the holiday's mean to you, and what kind of traditions do you have this time of year? Let me know in the comments below.

I'm looking forward to reading what you guys have to say.

Make sure that you're subscribed to me to be notified of future videos, and with all

that being said I'll see you guys next week?!