Holiday vs. Christmas

Please note as you read that I am in no way trying to bash or devalue the traditions we hold near and dear to our families and childhood memories or the ideas of giving, love, joy, and generosity that the Christmas season encourages in all of us.  Rather I am more commenting on what appears to be lacking and forgotten at times in our seasonal celebrations through the eyes of a Christ follower.  

I think that this post's topic has been building up inside me for a number of years.  I remember way back in High School I wrote a paper on it my junior year called "Santa-mas". So this post is long over due I believe.  With it being that time of year again, the the stores are filling their aisles with wish list items, the commercials have taken on a holiday flair & are telling us this is the best sale of the season so buy your gifts earlier, and TV channels are already promising their holiday countdown starting in mid November.  With all those things filling the media every way you turn, my feelings have just come flooding right back.  I can't quite put my finger on what my feelings are but I think it is something along the lines of annoyance, mixed with anger, mixed with frustration, mixed with exasperation. But I do know what about all this bothers me.

I see everything Santa, Snowmen, Snowflakes, Nutcrackers, presents, Reindeer, trees, & lights.  But in the midst of all that I see nothing but the occasional slightest reference to the name sake of CHRIST-mas, through the use of a Nativity scene. When I was younger I won't lie, I loved all of the stuff I listed above and never thought twice about it.  Seriously though, I still enjoy it all.  I watch the traditional Christmas movies, make Christmas cookies, decorate the tree, I mean I even have Star Wars Christmas ornaments.  Some of my favorite memories are of watching White Christmas and National Lampoons Christmas vacation with my family as we decorated the tree we went out to find.  However, over the past years I have started to think something is not entirely right and very wrong with this, or at least missing.  And I finally realized what was causing my distress over the things I used to not think twice about.  

My zeal for Christ has finally won out over the zeal for traditions and the commercialized "Holiday".  The Nativity is not supposed to be merely a piece of Christmas set under the tree but the entire reason and celebration of the season.  It is not just a day either, but the whole season of Advent; the waiting to celebrate the birth of the Savior, our Emmanuel, on Christmas.  We aren't supposed to fit Christ into our Christmas but have Christ the center of our celebration.  I have been told very often that what we spend our money and time on represents what we value.  So I begin to question, how much time during the Advent/Christmas season do I actually spend celebrating the birth of the Savior and how much time do I spend in the stores and on tradition or on presents?  Am I buying into the gift of God or the gift from Khols?  Who do I think of more, Joseph & Mary acting in faith and obedience or Santa Claus bringing me a present?  If my Christmas was represented by a pie-chart, which piece would be the largest?  It is a very convincing place to come to, but I think a good spot to be in.

So I have come to the conclusion that I don't mind them now calling things Holiday decorations and celebrations because I don't think it is reverent to associate crazy sales, mass buying & over spending, wish lists, and superficial uses of the phrase "Merry Christmas" with the birth of the Savior of the world.  I'd rather have the term Christmas used sparingly in the proper context and heart condition than in a commercialized form to encompass everything used to celebrate the time of the year that Christmas falls in.  Thoughts of Merry Christmas should first bring to mind images of a babe in the manger, not of Santa on the roof. So I myself am convicted this year to be more reflective in the way I celebrate this Christmas season, to look at the celebrations and traditions in a new light.  I need to remember that what I, as a Christian, am celebrating.  I need to celebrate more like the shepherds did those many years ago... 

^{Luke 2:8-20
8} And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. ⁹ And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. ¹⁰ And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. ¹¹ For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. ¹² And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” ¹³ And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,

¹⁴ “Glory to God in the highest,
    and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”

¹⁵ When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.” ¹⁶ And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger. ¹⁷ And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. ¹⁸ And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. ¹⁹ But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. ²⁰ And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.