It's sad to me that when I watch television, commercials say this, "...there are only ___ (pick a number) shopping days 'till Christmas..." How pathetic. Christmas has been reduced to a number of shopping days left. Since when was Christmas about shopping and buying things? Don't get me wrong, we've done the gifts, we've done the shopping, but it just seems more and more lame every year. I mean that. It's not that I don't like gifts. I love new things, and I LOVE giving things. I do. BUT I don't like the fact that Christmas has become about the stuff, about the presents. For years we picked names and did an exchange. Last year Nathan & I decided not to do any of that at all. We had made plans to visit a homeless shelter, but I was already with child and was feeling the yuckies. I was in bed all day long. This year - we'll be with family. But the whole filling the bottom of a tree with a gazillion presents...I guess it just feels so materialistic since Christmas doesn't have anything to do with me giving someone a gift. That's what birthdays are for, right? If Christmas is about saying, "Happy Birthday, Jesus," then why should other people, who have so much useless stuff anyway, get more useless stuff?
Okay, so I'm not totally boycotting the gift thing. What I'm trying to share is how frustrated I am with the materialism of American Christmases. I've heard over and over people complain about the crowds at stores. I hear people say that they have their shopping done. Shopping done for who? Jesus?
I'm not communicating my frustration well.
It's sad - I hate to sound cliche, but at the risk of sounding that way, let's get back to celebrating the birth of a Savior.
3 comments:
We celebrate Advent all the way through Epiphany, so I was raised with a bigger view of Christmas.
Here's some ideas and encouragement:
http://www.incourage.me/2009/12/telling-his-story-and-offering-him-gifts---an-advent-calendar-and-jesse-tree.html
I commented here:
http://www.babycenter.com/viewComments.htm?artifactSite=family&artifactZone=bc20famflfhc&intcmp=Pollpage_Seeallcomments&contentType=POLL&contentId=73900&ownerId=&pn=Poll
And this would be perfect for the growing Poffinbarger fam:
http://theblessednest.blogspot.com/2009/12/first-things-first-on-dec1st.html
Sorry, no blog, don't get excited. Just finally made an ID. :-)
I was here about 3 years ago. Then I did some studying and realized "Christmas" is a cultural festival that change through out the years keeping some traditions and adding new ones. The way i view Xmas is just that as well. My culture formed it. Weather be my parents, Christian organizations ('church'), or society. Some of that culture was based on Biblical truth, some was not.
I looked at the way I celebrated this festival and ask myself "does it take away from the glorification God?" If it didn't I had to drop it.
When I did this I became ok with what ever everyone else did the way I am every other day with what ever people decide to do.
Joel - you're absolutely right, and that's great wisdom - basically when we mind our own business and do what we know in our hearts is right for us, we won't have the need to judge others. That's freedom.
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