Christmas is over
Christmas is over. I didn’t experience any big letdown as I have in past years because each year I become more and more resigned to the fact that the Christmas that we celebrate is one big magnificently orchestrated commercial holiday. I wouldn’t say I’m hard hearted. I’m not a self-described "christmas hater" like my husband; I love to give and receive gifts and I love the notion of carrying on family traditions and creating time to be with family and friends. Those things are good but they don’t define Christmas. I love the Christmas story and I love that Christmas gives me an opportunity to celebrate (reflect & give thanks for) the birth of Jesus Christ, God’s son, my Savior. But somewhere along the way, I feel isolated in my celebration. I’m not surprised that Christ is being neglected. I don’t neccesarily expect the secular world to understand. But it does baffle me that every year I read news stories of communities banning Christ from the public "holiday" display. I’ve even heard of the nativity scene recreated with all the characters except Jesus. Excuse me, without Jesus there would be no story. Instead, at the risk of offending other religious views, public displays at Christmastime now include a representation of all major religions.
I can’t say that I’m doing a better job than the secular world of indoctrinating my children to have a biblical understanding of Christmas. I annually take them up and down the toy aisles and ask them what they "want" for Christmas gifts. I feed their "I deserve this" attitudes. Sure, we talk about Christ at Christmastime. And they learn the Christmas story at church. And they have their own toy nativity scene to set up and play with. I know that they are only 3 and 5 years old. Developementally, I don’t expect them to instantly or fully embrace Christ at Christmastime. And don’t even get me started on Santa. We have chosen in our home not to celebrate Santa Claus as the giver of gifts. But at the same time, the kids watch gazillions of cheesy Santa movies at Christmas and they "see" Santa everywhere. Megan, at 5, is especially conflicted. She desperately wants to believe in Santa and keeps wavering in her belief. How can I blame her when my favorite Christmas movie is "Miracle on 34th Street"?
After all is said and done, I think in a sense that even the kids have had enough. On December 26, one day after Christmas, the kids asked, "Mommy, can we take down the tree today?" And so, the Christmas decorations will come down soon and I am left wondering what my kids (and I) have taken away from Christmas. Have they stored any truth at all about Christ or are they already thinking about what they will recieve for Christmas next year?
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