Finally, we have cool weather today. It’s beginning to feel like winter – the start of my favorite holiday season – Christmas of course!
Christmas has not always been my favorite holiday.
Growing up, Christmas did not mean much more than no school, and a few presents. Even the presents were nothing to get excited about. We usually only got two presents – one from our aunt, and one from the cousins combined; they were usually clothes. I remember one year my sister got a pair of socks from the cousins. She ranted on and on about what a cheap gift it was. My dad blew up and yelled at her for being ungrateful. From then on, none of us dared to make any comments about the presents. We were pretty much used to not getting anything we wanted anyway.
Christmas also did not have any religious meaning for me growing up. We were not even the go-to-church-at-Easter-and-Christmas type of family. I suppose I am thankful that we did not go to the temple like some other Asian families. The only tradition we had was getting together for dinner with our relatives – yep, those same ones who gave us presents. Our cousins are about 10-15 years older than us. Going to their house was no fun. We would rather stay home and play since there were four of us kids in our family, enough to play any game such as monopoly. (That’s how I saw Christmas then. I did not appreciate my relatives as I do now. Those same cousins we now see occasionally and we get along great as adults.)
When I became a Christian in high school, I experienced Christmas differently.
I loved going to church for Christmas programs. We went Christmas caroling. I made some good friends with people at church and we exchanged presents. Christmas was not only a vacation from school, but an occasion with meaning.
Throughout the year, we celebrate numerous holidays that commemorate different events in history – July 4th, Martin Luther King, Memorial Day, etc. Christmas and Easter are the ones that celebrate events in the Christian’s history.
Sure, our culture has secularized Christmas, which is no surprise. The word Christmas is not pc, if that isn’t ridiculous. The schools have “Winter holiday” instead of Christmas holiday; the stores sell “Holiday trees”; we send “holiday cards” – Whatever.
But in the midst of this increasingly anti-Christian environment, Christmas is one time where Christians should take the greatest part in the celebration. By making it a big deal, I don’t mean spending more money on presents or putting up more lights than anyone else in the neighborhood. I don’t need more stress trying to make a “perfect” Martha Stewart Christmas.
We can put Christ back into Christmas and set an example to others what Christmas is about.
While the ACLU took the nativity scene off government property, there is nothing that prevents me from putting one on my lawn.
Go to Christmas services and invite a friend to go with you.
Choose meaningful Christmas cards. Or if you are into writing those end-of-the-year newsletters, make them Christ-centered instead of all about your kids’ accomplishments.
Read different versions of the Christmas story everyday. Read about how different cultures celebrate Christmas and the meaning behind it.
Do an advent calendar that tells the Christmas story day to day.
What other ideas or traditions do you observe that is meaningful?