Thoughts on Christmas

I have really mixed feelings about Christmas. Years ago Joel and I decided to opt out of the gift giving madness in order to be able to use our money for those that have true need. We haven't looked back since.

What I have mixed feelings about is the holiday itself. Probably due to sentimental feelings that come from my childhood I still get warm feelings when I listen to Christmas music and meditate on the incarnation. Part of me want to hang on to the Christian traditions that are focused around Jesus.

Another part of me thinks that the whole season is crap. The liturgical calender holds no appeal to me. It's extra-biblical (but not necessarily unbiblical) and at least for me I suspect strict adherence would detract from weighter matters of obedience. I'm just not sure that Christmas or Easter really have any value. These holidays are marking events that we're supposed to be remembering daily. Are the holidays even beneficial?

I'm certainly quite jaded by most of Christmas. The commercial buy buy buy of Christmas makes me sick. The incarnation of Christ is amazing and nothing quite detracts from the significance of this gift like giving junk to people that don't need it.

Christmas trees and Santa are another mystery to me. I don't understand why Christians don't do away with them altogether. They have absolutely nothing to do with Jesus. They simply distract us toward sentimentality. If we're going to celebrate Christmas then lets make it 100% about Jesus. All the other secular traditions get in the way of true worship. Christmas is such a mixed bag in our society that I'm not sure it's going to be all that easy to separate the wheat from the chaff in order to make something wholesome out of it.