I made it through the weekend without visiting a single shopping center, though I did my share of online browsing.
Call me hard to please, but I just can’t find anything that stands out this year. I love to give gifts that mean something, rather than giving a gift just to be giving something.
And expect a post later this week about the ills of the ever-growing commercialization of Christmas.
Here is but a preview: I have friends who are atheists but who still put up Christmas trees and exchange gifts. While it is their right to do what they please, their rituals are starting to offend me more and more each year.
Why on Earth would you erect a Christmas tree and exchange gifts during the holiest of Christian holidays if you don’t even believe in Christ?
I don’t light a menorah; I’m not Jewish.
Perhaps it is because trees and gifts are the more secular celebrations of our Christian event. Christians erect trees and give gifts to celebrate the birth of Jesus, while others do it because of sales and Santa Claus. That’s what they believe this time of year is all about.
I grew up in a very Christian family, and we always had Santa and gifts galore. But the notion of Christ wasn’t lost on me, and I knew that the baby Jesus in the manger meant something special.
I worry today that too many children think that Christmas is just about Xboxes and Nintendo Wii.
No longer — and, frankly, for most of our modern existence — does Christmas really symbolize the birth of Christ. It symbolizes Black Fridays and Black Mondays, where retailers offer an orgy of cheap goods at cheap prices.
Admittedly I have for many years participated in this ritualistic display of shopping and eating, but the true meaning of the season was always there in my heart.
It seems as I grow older I become a more spiritual person, and growing through the Lord is what it’s all about. This year, I’m shifting the focus from gifts and trying to honor the man who was born and who died for each and every one of us, whether we choose to believe it or not.
I guess my preview turned out to be pretty much all I had to say on this topic. So, I will let it rest for now. Thanks for listening.
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if you want to give gifts that mean something, rather than giving a gift just to be giving something then i would encourage you to make a donation to a local charity in honor of your friend or loved one. it is a reminder to everyone of the true meaning of the season.
Decorating a tree and giving gifts are practices that existed before Christianity adopted them. Look up Winter Solstice and Saturnalia. You really shouldn’t get offended at non-Christians putting up trees and exchanging gifts since those practices are not unique nor original to Christianity.
Hanging mistletoe and the yule log are both pagan practices as well, but they were adopted into Christianity like many other practices were. It’s believed the Church did this to help pagans convert and to make the transition easier.
Some churches believe that christmas trees should not be put up because they are a pagan practice. Sometimes they use Jeremiah 10 from the KJV to justify this belief.
1 Hear ye the word which the LORD speaketh unto you, O house of Israel:
2 Thus saith the LORD, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them.
3 For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe.
4 They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not.
Though other translations of the bible describe this in more detail, like verse 3 from the NIV which says “they cut a tree out of the forest, and a craftsman shapes it with his chisel.” which sounds more like the carving of an idol than the decorating of a tree. Personally this one makes more sense to me.
Either way, I don’t believe putting up trees and giving gifts is critical to being a “good Christian.” When you face your judgement I don’t think God is really going to care how big your trees were or how many lights you had on them. I’m pretty sure He will put more weight on whether or not you followed the Commandments than whether or not you put lights on your house.
I also believe that if you spent all your money on gifts for other people and did it out of pure generosity that you would be rewarded in Heaven. It’s only a bad thing if you do it for selfish reasons, or if you do something dumb like sacrifice your family’s well being so you can be the one who gave the coolest gifts at your work’s Christmas party.
Don’t let socialists fool you into believing that Christmas has become nothing more than evil capitalism and greed based commercialism. That’s just propaganda. It’s not the act that counts, it’s the intent behind it.
Your best post yet.