The supposed War on Christmas arrived early this year, as did all the commercial Christmas decorations. This fight, together with the hyper-commercialization of this season, leaves us with a dilemma: how do we celebrate the birth of our Savior as both a religious event and a general holiday time?
Christians have certainly seen the meaning of this season change in recent years. What was our holiday seems to become more secular by the year. Not everyone who celebrates Christmas believes in Christ, a situation that is disturbing to many who do. Christmas carols get turned into commercial jingles, and it seems that no one knows “the reason for the season.”
Still, demanding that every store clerk say “Merry Christmas,” or getting upset about the color of Starbucks’ paper cups hardly sound like the way to create peace on earth. Indeed, given the state of things, how we celebrate Christmas is probably not high on Jesus’ priority list, and maybe shouldn’t be so high on ours as well. Perhaps the best we can do is to be sure that we are celebrating this season ourselves as Christians. A few suggestions:
- Attend church. If we want to remember that “Jesus is the Reason,” this seems like a good way to start.
- Invite people to church—what better way to demonstrate what matters to you?
- Give like Jesus. “When you give a party, invite the poor who cannot repay you.” What if this advice applied to Christmas? Trinity will be collecting money for Episcopal Relief and Development. Offering a portion of your holiday budget is one way to keep Christ in Christmas.
- Teach the children. Are the “Elf on the Shelf” and visits to Santa really the best Christmas memories we want to
create? Christmas is the perfect opportunity to make faith relevant at home in countless ways, but that only happens with effort. - Look for Christ outside of your comfort zone. Christmas means that God is with us in a new way. That also means we can find Christ’s presence in unexpected ways, not just in Christian ways. Take the time to talk to someone from outside the church. Find out how they experience the holiness of this time. Make Christmas bigger, instead of shrinking it to fit our nostalgia.
- Practice kindness and generosity. Jesus didn’t tell us to turn the other cheek because it is fun or easy, but because not every battle is won through anger. Christ’s way requires something different from us, his followers.
How do you keep this season holy in the midst of so many not-so-holy demands? Let’s make sharing our faith in word and deed the real reason for the season!