Some not very Christmasy thoughts about Christmas

So once again I'm challenged by a friend to express my thoughts. Credit to S. I've had this blog written for several days but was thinking about not posting it. I think the reason is that I'm now going into the area of opinions. I like that - because to me it is a going forward. It's scary because sometimes people don't like other people's opinions.
Oh well. It's my blog. My place for processing my thoughts. If I knew it was going to stop here that would be one thing but I've already started my next blog. This is me....growing.
Think I'll shut up here and just go with my not very Christmasy thoughts and let subsequent posts speak for themselves.

I’m OK with Christmas.


Really. I am. Sort of.


I believe I'm going to enjoy this Christmas season.


Lets say I’ve come to peace with Christmas. After 50+ years of living in it and for it now I live with it and can enjoy it on my own terms and on the terms I'm working out with my family.

As a child I lived in it. That’s what children do. I guess I enjoyed that season of the year as much as most kids did. We didn’t have much and mom and dad didn’t spend much and there was not this big decorating of the house thing or big cooking thing that went on. I don’t have any horrible memories of Christmas as a child but neither was it spectacular. We just did Christmas every year. I think it was when I began hanging with D as a teenager that I began to feel what Christmas can and can’t do for people. I’m not so sure that her Mom (single working mom) had lots of money but she knew how to make her money work for her. Christmas at D’s house meant a huge tree with what seemed to be hundreds of presents underneath. Vaguely I felt the difference. I was living in that time when I was very detached from the reality of life so it didn't really bother me much but neither have I forgotten it.

Then I became married with children and started living for it - starting about December 15 every year. Some Christmases we had money to spend and we spent. Other Christmases we didn’t have much money and we didn’t spend. But as my children got older I felt the effects of those times when I couldn’t spend and they would talk about what their friends got for Christmas. I never knew how to make money work for me. And it wasn't just the money. I had never established in my heart what Christmas was really about so if I couldn't give them "presents" then I seemed to have nothing to give even though I was a Christian.

Bless our hearts, Larry and I just never were the best money or time “managers”. So we were never really prepared. Sure I know that stuff is really about us but I also feel like all this has kept me from romanticizing the season. I won't be one of its major defenders because I don't think it's the be all and end all of Christian expression. And besides what you may be doing at home, when there’s kids involved, you also have school and all that is required of you from that quarter. And in my opinion the demands of the church were the worst. Honestly. Christianity defends Christmas and lives Christmas as if Christmas was ordained by God – and even a superficial study will show that it wasn’t. It is something born in the heart of men and the fact that God meets us here in special ways doesn’t change that. He uses every opportunity we give him to reveal himself as the LIGHT who came into the world. I don’t have a problem with the idea that we might want to set aside a day to celebrate the coming of our Christ into this world. Nothing wrong with that. I just think that Christmas is treated with an importance that is way out of proportion to what it really is.

And I don't think we need to get upset when others who do not believe what we do choose to use the season for their own purposes. (Think Festivus.) After all - according to some, feel free to research this yourself - we adopted a day from the pagan calendar so why should we get bothered when others want to adopt a day that we adopted from someone else. If people don't believe they are not going to start if they feel like they have to defend themselves and their own freedom from us. The reality of Christ is not necessarily seen in a nativity scene and is most likely not seen in its defenders.

As Christians we seem to insist that the rest of humanity see it the way we do. Unbelievers are not going to. Period. And nobody likes having something shoved down their throat. Christians don’t like it either. Would that all men become believers in Jesus the Savior but not so that we can all celebrate Christmas the same way.

I don't want to get carried away with this and won't go into details but I don't really like the way Christians who adhere to the Christian system express Christianity at Christmas time. At least not all of it. Can't make a blanket statement here.

My cry at Christmas would be for that freedom that Christ came to eventually purchase for us. The freedom of each one to do as they feel God would have them. Freedom from the need to perform. Freedom from unrealistic expectations imposed on us by society. Freedom to celebrate truth rather than traditions. I believe this can be a beautiful time of life each year.

I'm committed to finding that beauty within my family first and then to see what we have to offer a larger community.