These past weeks have been a joy for me.
I adore this time of year and all it brings: cool weather, traditional carols at church, selecting gifts for our loved ones and beautifully wrapping them, the cheesy movies where Christmas has somehow found itself in peril once again....
I love all the hustle and bustle.
The whole Christmas season...as Dr. Seuss said.
This is the time of year that brings out the best in people...and unfortunately the worst.
I overheard a woman on her phone at hobby lobby say,
"I am SO glad we do not exchange gifts with each other. It just takes the pressure off."
Since when did doing something sweet and kind and generous for someone else become an act filled with stress and anxiety?
Competition to give the best gift? Poor management of your finances? or just plain selfishness?
I'm not sure.
And truly it is not my place to judge.
So why the blogpost about it, you ask?
Because long ago when I decided to be a Blogger, I told myself I would always say it like it is. My words are not always popular.
But hopefully they make you think.
So here goes...
I get it. I get it.
"Jesus is the reason for the season"
as us Christians love to claim this time of year.
But as my dear friend pointed out, why on His birthday do we make such a fuss about "remembering Christ".
Does His birth into a fallen world and payment for the world's sins on the cross justify a head nod only once a year?
Okay, so in fairness - Twice.
There is always Easter after all.
Why are we as Christians not as concerned to take up the crusade to keep Christ at the forefront of all of our family traditions all year round. Where is Jesus on the 4th of July? Or in Disney World on your family vacation? How bout at your kid's birthday parties?
Are we honoring Jesus there?
Well...actually some do.
It looks a lot like this: "Please do not bring my child a birthday present. No need to celebrate them with gifts. Please make a donation in their name to ...."
I have heard many say gift giving is just another way of literally buying into the monster of consumerism that our country in particular has been feeding for decades now.
After all....our children do not actually need anything new.
Well of course they don't. They are not living in a floorless home, sleeping all in one room...eating the same meal only once every day. So no...they do not need anything more.
But is this a fight we as Christians are really called to take on?
And for whom?
Is our country really on a downward spiral of materialism?
I would argue in Jesus' time, greediness and the need to own stuff was just as rampant.
Look at the people selling goods right there in the temple.
This is not a new concept, people.
The trend in recent years has been for Christian parents to limit or even eliminate giving their children any gifts at Christmas. Or the alternative...donating in their name to an impoverished village across the world.
We say things like, "we aren't sending out Christmas cards this year. We are giving our money to someone in need."
Or..." Our children only receive a few gifts on Christmas."
To represent the wise men.
You know...so they don't become greedy and all.
We may self righteously proclaim,
"They don't need anything anyway. They don't mind at all if we give all their Christmas money to a missionary."
Do they?
Really not mind, that is?
Would you have been grateful at 7 years old to give all your Christmas presents away to a "good cause" that your parents had coached you to come up with? How would it have felt in your formative teen years to go to school where everyone talks about the wonderful and glorious "haul" they got on Christmas morning while you humbly proclaim "Nope. I don't mind at all that I didn't get a play station or a cell phone. I gave a goat to a village."
Friends. Please do not get me wrong.
I am not mocking the command of our Christian faith to be joyful givers.
Billy and I set aside money every month for giving purposes.
December we increase this amount.
Often times I go without little niceties to spend my extra cash on someone else.
We don't tell people how much or for what causes we give to.
Because our praise is not for man to bestow.
Our children are involved in some of this.
And they love it.
Family money spent for another's good fortune.
So yes...give! Give and give and give some more.
But does it have to be at your child's personal expense?
What I would like to say is this:
"What about your traditions would be admired
by an unbelieving world?"
Because they are the ones watching.
Oh yes, your Christian brothers and sisters may be impressed by your good deeds and they may think you are fabulous parents for choosing not to give to your children to teach them a lesson in giving. (Do you see the irony there?)
But what will the world think?
The very world that received the greatest gift of all in a baby placed in a humble animal feedbox on a cold winter's night.
The long awaited Messiah...come to rescue a broken world.
What will the unbelievers in your circle think of you not giving your children gifts on the most special of days.
Will this act point them to the love and generosity of Christ or make them shake their heads in disbelief?
"What do we care what man thinks? It is God we are honoring."
Yes, but Jesus cared. That is why he followed the rules. He paid taxes and commanded us to do so as well.
Because He knew that what others think of us is what they will also think of our God.
Some of my happiest memories of my childhood were Christmas.
Not in the presents. Those became dusty or broken over the years and were sold in garage sales long ago. The happiness that remains is because of the feeling that can never be lost of having adoring parents who prepared a wonderful moment for me and my sister, video taping our every tear of paper, surely having sacrificed many things for themselves that month to give to their cherished daughters. A legacy that made us both want so desperately to be Moms too. My sister and I had dozens of glorious Christmases and we now have 8 children between us to keep those memories going on.
And as a side note, one of my children didn't get Christmas much growing up. What he did get was donated from the Salvation Army.( Thank you Jesus for the goodness of charity)
There was no Christmas punch. There were no frosted cookies and stockings brimming with treats. There was no church service with a beautiful choir of angels singing. He didn't have wrapped gifts with his name beautifully penned on them... hand selected by a mother who sacrificed it all for her babies.
Christmas was in some years, just another day.
For this and many others is the reason why I do what I do on Christmas.
Yes, we celebrate Christ.
He gets a birthday cake that my daughters help me make and my sons delight in eating! :)
We go to church...we pray...we relish in the blessings of another year gone by.
We thank our God for His abundance...during our 10 years together of both plenty and want. When we spent years with the knowledge of a barren womb and no tiny stockings hung on our mantel.
When we had a tiny tree and hardly any gifts...
...to when our Christmas room was overflowing with gifts for the 5 children that light up our world.
My children give gifts to one another out of their meager little allowances.
Quarters spent at the dollar tree to bless a brother and a sister.
They gets presents from Billy and I too.
Lots of them.
And I am not ashamed.
We budget the same amount every year for them and family members. We cash it out. This is our 6th year to do Christmas with no credit card debt in January...as I do not believe gift giving should come at all costs.
I enjoy every moment of the privilege of spending the money (which was provided by our Lord in the first place) on my loved ones and cherished children.
"But Christmas makes kids greedy and forget about Jesus' sacrifice? And we want our kids to know it is not about them but about all the children in the world who don't get a Christmas."
The Bible says foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child.
Greediness is too, friends.
And this sin is not won overnight on a holiday once a year.
It has to be tackled daily in the little things. Do you give up your parking space? Does your child pass the first cookie to a sibling or gobble it for themselves? Are they kind to their classmates?
Friends...I promise that these lessons are not lost in a pile of wrapping paper on the 25th of December.
It is not necessary to relegate Christ's birthday for the day that big heart issues are going to be tackled in your children.
Parenthood is a journey.
A marathon, not a race.
So what if you do Santa?
Or you don't.
Or you do gifts.
Or you don't.
Or you give a big donation to your favorite charity in mid December or sometime in March?
Is God glorified more in one way of celebrating over the other?
Because I believe each year is a year to reevaluate.
What about your family's Christmas is good and just and right?
And what of it is misguided and seeking praise from others?
What will be the lasting impression you leave in your children's minds when they reflect on their childhood Christmases.
Are the choices you make maybe your desperate need to seek favor from a God who already sees you as worthy enough to die for?
Just something to think about this Christmas as you look around you and reflect on the blessings that are far more important anyway than a bunch of stuff.
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