So with Christmas coming up in a month and a half, stores are going crazy, advertising agencies are swamped, and the stress is starting to set in. All these things tend to cause me to sit up and say “What the heck?”

I know what Christmas is about, and most other people do to. There are millions in America that believe that Christmas is all about the birth of Jesus. Even many who do not normally attend church will attend on Christmas. Yet with all this… why is it still all about the gifts?

My parents raised me on the teaching that Christmas is all about celebrating the birth of our Savior. Every Christmas morning we had to wait for the whole family to gather around in the living room, and then read the Christmas story from the Bible. Then we’d talk about it a little, pray, and dig into presents. But even still, when I look back on those times, Christmas was all about the presents in my mind. I thought more about Christmas presents than I did about God during the Christmas season.

So I’m getting older now, and staring me right in the face is a bright neon sign that says “You’re gonna have kids one of these days… You can’t avoid it.” And that always scares me. I’m just not sure I’m ready for the responsibility. And it’s things like Christmas that scare me. How am I going to raise my kids so that they know that Christmas is all about Jesus. and not presents?

I’ve known of families that simply do not give gifts during Christmas. I guess that has merit, but many times, that child will grow up hating Christmas, or at the very least, thinking it unfair that all their friends got a bunch of cool stuff and they didn’t.

Here’s where I ask for feedback. What can you think of as a way to make Christmas more about Christ. Any little thing. Do you read the Christmas story? That’s a help. I know you all have some pretty creative ways to take the focus off of gift-giving… So take this opportunity to write some out and help other families acheive their goal of making Christmas all about Christ.

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 10th, 2005 at 6:56 pm and is filed under Serious. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.