what has happened to Christmas!?

Aaaah it’s that time of year again. After Thanksgiving, time to start buying Christmas gifts, the baking, the decorating, the traveling, the empty bank account, the stress of the season. What on earth has happened to Christmas?For about the last 15 years, when this time of year starts, I start getting a bit cranky. My family will probably tell you I get a lot cranky. I have struggled for years to not fall into the trap of overspending. I can do that anytime of the year, thank you very much. But there is something about this time of the year that leads people to spend too much. The thing that I struggle with is what does all of this gluttonous commercialism have to do with the Birth of Jesus? Christmas should be a time of getting together with our families and celebrating the miracle of the birth of the Redeemer. Instead it has turned into something else. I have even fallen into the trap of venturing out on the day after Thanksgiving and camping out in a store parking lot before dawn just to be able to get one of the latest electronic gadgets at a good price. Through the years I have even seen seemingly sane people turn into animals that fight over the last doll or Xbox type game on the shelf. Now I ask you, what do you think Christmas should be like? Don’t you agree that Christmas was meant to change the world? Why don’t we do something radical this year and do Christmas differently. Let’s focus on the divine and not on the discounts this year and for the years to come. We can start by resisting a culture that tells us what to buy, wear and spend with no regard to bringing glory to Jesus.I ran across a site on the internet called the Advent Conspiracy and it had some very interesting ideas on how to bring Christ back into Christmas instead of blatant consumerism. I really liked the part about “Worship more, spend less, give more ‘relational type gifts’, love all”. Worship more. God is honored by us gathering to enjoy one another’s company in His service. This can be done several ways not just in going to a church service. Helping out at the local Food Pantry or working on a Habitat for Humanity project or selling t-shirts to raise money for someone in dire need. Those are all ways to worship the Lord.Spend Less. Saying yes to Jesus means saying no to overspending. When we say no to over-consumerism then we are creating the space to say yes to Jesus and his presence in our lives.Give More. Just hear me out. We can give relational gifts because we worship a God that gave us the ultimate relational gift of His Son for our salvation. Think about it. We can give gifts of meaning instead of material gifts. Last year I gave my sister a portrait of her grand child that I had drawn. I could not have given her anything else that meant more. In thinking about what it means to give ourselves to each other, we are transformed by the story of Advent, knowing that we give relationally because God gave relationally. Pictures, poems, pieces of art, tickets to the Bollinger Family Theater or Blast from the Past, all become relational alternatives that foster what matters most in life. Love All. 2 Corinthians 8:9 tells us that Christ, though he was rich, entered our poverty so we would no longer be poor. The money that we would save by giving relationally could be used to help someone else in need. It could go to places that need clean drinking water, or to local food pantries, or to heifer international. This Christmas try something radical for a change. Spend time together, Prepare a feast with a meal, candles and ambiance music; Buy your child a baseball bat for a trip to the batting cages together; wrap a pound of coffee or a tin of favorite tea with a date to get together with a close friend; Wrap popcorn and a classic DVD for a movie night with a friend; Host Monday night football and make some homemade pizzas; Wrap 2 copies of a classic book to read with someone close to you; “Babysit” for those parents who could use a night out; Yard work for an elderly person in your life; get together over a cup of coffee with family or friends and talk theology and what God is doing in your lives. See how easy this could be? Make time to make gifts. Its surprisingly relaxing and they really do mean much more. Just make it personal.So what do you say? Want to join me for a little less stressful Christmas? Christmas was meant to change the world and it still can, one person at a time, if we want to do it.