Your Christmas This Year

Here it is….Christmas season! Are you ready? Decorations up? Gift list completed? Shopping started? Plans for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day settled?While most every Christian talks about Christ being left out of Christmas, they tend to be as guilty of that as anyone. Though we say Christmas is about Jesus’ birth, we get our kids more excited about the myth of Santa than we do about the truth of Jesus (and in doing so cause a lot of later doubts–see my blog dated November 26, 2012). We cook a big meal, have extended family in, and then claim to not have enough time to honor Jesus’s birth and worship with our Christian family on Christmas Eve. We overextend ourselves with plastic credit, buying things that no one really needs for people who don’t really have needs, but give virtually nothing tangible to Him for His work at that time of the year. Yet, we still claim our celebration is all about Jesus. Is it really? Does He think it is?So if we are going to keep Christ in Christmas, what is that going to look like?First, find a way a to be Jesus to those who need Him. Look for creative ideas to be a blessing to some who are struggling. It might mean calling a couple of nursing homes to find a few people who rarely, if ever, have visitors. It might be volunteering for the Salvation Army or at the children’s hospital.And I hope you are making plans to worship on Christmas Eve and/or Christmas Day. It’s hard for us to say that we are celebrating Christ’s birth when we are spending all this energy, time and resources on a celebration and can’t find the time to gather with His family to worship and commemorate his birth.Here are a couple of other practical suggestions:

• Sit down as a family and write out your Christmas season priorities.
• Decorate early and together….make it fun!
• Talk about the meaning and value of gift-giving (establish some guidelines).
• Research and tell the real story of Saint Nicholas (much better than the make-believe).
• Find a Christmas program at an area church and attend it.
• Schedule time in the evenings leading up to and on Christmas Day to read portions of the prophecies of the Messiah and the story of His birth.

More than anything, keep the season as uncluttered as possible and talk about the meaning of Jesus’ birth whenever possible.It is a wonderful time of the year! Enjoy it!