I love Christmas, but I’m right sick of the Holidays. I see scads of people every day getting their Holiday Cards made, printing photos of the family adventure to get their Holiday tree, and stringing up Holiday lights. This is not to mention folks of all ages buying cameras and accessories to give as the perfect Holiday gift. Carolers singing Holiday tunes spread Holiday cheer as they roam the streets. And what a better way to get into the Holiday spirit than a picture with the jolly old elf himself?
I ask you: what ever happened to good old fashioned Christmas cheer? You know, the time of year when families gathered around the table to eat a Christmas dinner cooked by mom and grandma and then relaxed afterwards with the Christmas story and gifts? The time of year when Christmas carolers flocked the streets before Christmas singing yuletide tunes like Silent Night, O Come all Ye Faithful, and What Child is This? This is not to say that I’m opposed to Christmas trees, Christmas cards, exchanging presents, or even Santa himself, but I think it’s time that we look at it all from a different view.
This might sound like another rant about “keeping Christ in Christmas,” and if that’s what it is to you, then my point hasn’t come across. To me it’s something much deeper.
The essential part of Christmas is being left out, but to some extent even that is very sadly becoming cliché. Every year there are ads in the paper and on television advising us to “Keep Christ in Christmas,” and I may be underestimating things a lot, but in a world on the downward tailspin of commercialism and capitalism a 30-second ad or a 2x3 inch section in the paper isn’t going to do much to reverse it, sadly.
Yes, Christmas does bring us comfort as we remember Christ’s birth and God’s ultimate gift to us, but in many ways, it’s more than that. It’s how it translates from that into society. Society isn’t totally hopeless: there are many organizations around the Christmas season that work at keeping Christ in Christmas but also at providing for those less fortunate. While standing behind the Salvation Army Christmas kettle yesterday I flipped open one of their pamphlets to read that they raised over $18 million last year with the kettle program and hoped to surpass those numbers this year. This money is used all across the country to serve 1.5 million people in need every year via soup kitchens, work programs, emergency aid, and many other programs.
Christmas is still more than that, though. It’s about togetherness, about spending time with those you love. It’s about taking time to enjoy the winter wonderland God has given us. Christmas is hot chocolate and ginger bread houses and candy canes, wreaths and sleigh rides and bells.
With that being said, I hope people see Christmas as more than just the “Holiday” but as what it truly is: the undefined feeling after realizing you’ve been given truly the greatest gift of all – a gift that all the money in the world couldn’t afford to buy, let alone gift-wrap!
Merry Christmas everyone! May God bless you this season and always.
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