It's Christmas Again

It’s Christmas again. Remember as a child when it felt like Christmas would never come? Now it seems to return so quickly I don’t quite have time to finish putting away the last year’s gifts and decorations. I mean that literally. I still have two gifts sitting on my kitchen counter from last year, and a table cloth downstairs that I put on last Christmas. The cat likes it

It’s Christmas again. Every year I tell myself not to get too wound up in decorating and planning and shopping. But there is always something else that could be done, or tweaked, or tweaked again. Let’s face it, I’m going to be wound up over something. My house is an explosion of Christmas decorating boxes and garlands. I can even get wound up over keeping it simple.

It’s Christmas again. We wonder why we have no time to write those cards, bake those cookies or decorate that table. Then we remember we are still working, cooking, doing laundry, and all the other things that make up a normal day. Now we’ve added a million other things, and can’t understand why we’re so tired. So why are we trying to do two full time jobs and planning to stay rested and happy?

It’s Christmas again. Why do we love it so? Even with all the hassle I create, I love Christmas. Let’s start with the lights. Where I live it doesn’t get light until after 7 AM and then goes dark before 4 PM, lights make all the difference. Christmas lights literally make our world brighter. We have these laser lights that make all our trees look carefully lit in a blanket of lights, while creating a sense that it’s snowing color (and when it does rain or snow, the effect is incredible). Of course, some guests have been a bit disturbed seeing a red dot or two land on someone’s forehead, but it’s quickly gone.  I really love the houses totally covered in lights. I admire whoever took the time to lay it all out, synchronize their music and put it all in motion. There’s someone who loves Christmas.

Then there is the music. I could listen to Christmas music year round. I love both the secular and the sacred songs. I can sing along and know most of the words. I listen to a 24 hour Christmas music station that began broadcasting Christmas music in early November. I drive around singing, probably looking like a maniac. I had a panic attack because the drawer is stuck in one CD player. I still have 20 more CD’s to listen to. But the backup player is working. I remember as a kid drinking in the Christmas music coming from vinyl albums my parents had purchased for cheap from Firestone and Goodyear. Julie Andrews, Barbra Streisand, Big Crosby, Robert Goulet all in my living room. I’d turn off everything but the Christmas lights and the music and just zone out. Last night we attended a Christmas concert, complete with orchestra and choir. I was in Christmas heaven.

I also love giving gifts. I even enjoy shopping if I get out before crowds and have time to just wander around. Sometimes I have ideas beforehand, but I also love the impulse of finding something that is perfect for a friend or sibling. I enjoy making gifts, and try to do that every year for at least one gift each. I love wrapping the gifts, and am known in my family as the “bow lady”, which could be a compliment. At least they notice I put on bows of real ribbon, not the stick on kind. I guess I am the snobby bow lady. I really enjoy watching people open gifts I’ve given them. You can tell when you’ve hit on a good one, their face lights up, or you make them cry, in a good way. I tend to go a bit overboard in the present department. It’s the impulse thing, sometimes the right present idea shows up at the last minute. Of course, I also love receiving presents, who doesn’t. But mostly, for me, it’s about the giving.

I do have a slight tension between the whimsical Christmas and the holy. I have always loved Santa Claus. I have a rather large collection of Santa Claus and Father Christmas figures now set up around my house. I have an enormous collection of Santa ornaments, alongside rabbits (yes, some even in Christmas attire) and Disney figures as well. I inherited a herd of Nutcrackers from my sister. My house if full of whimsy.  My nephew once asked me if I believed in Santa, and I responded that I believed in the idea of Santa. I really love the elfin gift-giver who can manage to climb down chimneys, even in houses that don’t have one, and never get stuck. And don’t get me started on how he’s able to hit all of us in one night. It’s magic, plain and simple. For my whole life Christmas has been magical, thanks to my parents’ love of the season.

But I’ve often wondered if people coming into my home see the real Christmas, the holy one? Do all my Santa’s get in the way? I only have one crèche. It’s beautiful, by the way, made in Bethlehem and given to us by my husband’s parents after a trip to Israel. It’s very simple, much like the original setting, lost in the noise of the world. But it sits in the center of one wall, on a table dedicated to it, hovered over by a tall, stately angel, a gift from a dear friend, and a star. Is it enough? One crèche against dozens of Santas?

I don’t have a good defense. I believe we have Christmas, Christ-mass – because 2000 years ago, God became flesh and dwelt among us for a while. He was born to a simple carpenter and his wife far away in Israel. They had gone to Bethlehem to be registered in a Roman mandated census, and traveled by foot (maybe by donkey; for Mary’s sake we can hope she didn’t have to walk), Mary ready to deliver, exhausted, in pain, no room.  But the inn keeper offered his stable, probably a cave, and there a son was born, and Joseph named him Jesus, as the Angel had told him.  And that baby, honored by shepherds sent by angels and wise men following a star, grew to be a man who gave himself in my place – took my sin upon himself and died for me.

Chris Rice wrote these powerful lyrics, “fragile hands sent to heal us, tender brow prepared for thorns, tiny heart whose blood would save us.” Look at the child, the newborn baby, and think of why He came. No wonder Mary pondered all these things. God, in the vulnerable flesh of a baby, come to one day save us. That’s the Christmas story. That’s why we have Christmas in the first place.

Out of that grew the secular lore, wed with European winter solstice customs. Decorated trees, holly, ivy, mistletoe, all co-opted to become Christian symbols, while still keeping their secular roots. Giving gifts because Jesus was the greatest gift, also became part of the culture. Of course, in America we’ve taken it to its greatest, commercial heights, but the sentiment was to remind us to love and give. The Angels told the shepherds they had good news of great joy…peace on earth good will towards men. So Christmas is full of joy and words of peace and hope.

Last year there was a big uproar over Starbucks’ red cups. The secular world somehow thought Starbucks was favoring the sacred and the Christians thought Starbucks had blanked out Christmas. The cups were just red cups. People file lawsuits over a crèche in a public place or Christmas trees in airports, as if both represent “religion”. For most Americans, the sacred heart of Christmas left long ago. “Something about Jesus” one of my students said. We’re even to remove the word “Christmas” and wish Happy Holiday instead. I do get it, “Christ”mas includes Christ, and that’s what’s missing and that’s what rubs. I was in a card store once around Easter, and a shopper said to her friend, “The Christians have even taken over Easter.”  The forgotten reality is, we would have nothing to celebrate if not for Christ. Winter and Spring Solstice celebrations went out for most a long time ago. Though Christians co-opted those celebrations and many of those traditions hundreds of years ago, the secular world has long claimed them back.

Ah, it’s Christmas again, politics and whimsy aside. Christmas is a time when friends and family gather and share their love and good will. I don’t have to separate my Santas from my crèche. It isn’t symbols that really share my faith with those I invite into my home, sit beside at work, or hand my money to in a store. It’s me. I am the walking, talking advertisement of Christmas, and I don’t mean my collection of ugly Christmas sweaters (which, by the way, I do not have). If I am a Christian, and have centered my life around the Christ Christmas celebrates, then that Christ should be reflected in me. Christians are the face of Jesus in the world, and we’ve failed miserably to reflect the Jesus in whom we believe. My responsibility is to that Jesus, and to give Him a real opportunity to be seen through me.

It’s Christmas again, and as I welcome my friends and family with hugs and food and all my decorations, I seek to keep my focus on also wrapping them in Jesus’ love, joy, peace, patience, kindness goodness and self-control. I seek to provide a place of refuge where they can feel His presence above and through all the clutter and noise of the season.

O come let us adore Him.

O come let us adore Him.