'Fess up: It's all about the Christmas loot

Ah, the holidays. It’s the joyous time of year when the War on Christianity heats up and the real meaning of Christmas moves deeper into folklore status. It’s Merry Christmas, not Happy Holidays. Keep Christ in Christmas. Merry CHRISTmas. Jesus is the reason for the season. Nativity scenes are OK to display. I get as tired of these bumper sticker battles as I do listening to Christmas music endlessly for a month. To be honest, I really find Christmastime to be very depressing. As long as I can remember, Christmas was always supposed to be about the birth of the Christ. As a boy, however, it was all about the gifts. What am I going to get? What’s in it for me? Be honest, isn’t that what Christmas is really about in the heart of most every American youngster? Don’t give me the politically correct answer. When I was a kid I would invariably be asked what Christmas is all about. Like a good little Christian boy I would say it’s the birth of Jesus. I ask my own kids and get the same answer. But their anticipation of Christmas and their conversations say otherwise, just like their old man. Now that I have 19 years of parenthood behind me and two seasons as a mall Santa, I have come to firmly believe that modern Christmas is all about gift-getting. When was the last time you asked someone – especially a child – what they wanted to GIVE for Christmas? Do children have a hard time going to sleep on Christmas Eve because they are in such anticipation of how their loved ones will react when they see what they gave them? Come to think of it, do people have their children wait hours in line to see Santa so they can tell him what to give? No, they plop on his lap to give him a laundry list of toys that have been marketed into their heads on TV and to pose for overpriced “priceless” photos. We’re taught from the get-go to want stuff for Christmas. Oh yeah, we call it the season of giving and remind folks that it is better to give than receive, but we all know deep down the thing we like most about Christmas is hauling in the loot. If we somehow manage not to get everything we want, we hit the stores the next day to cash in on sales to get the things we think we need. What really depresses me this time of year is the tremendous pressure to spend money I don’t have to give gifts because it’s expected, not because I want to. That kind of giving isn’t from the heart. It stems from social norms and artificial expectations. When all is said and done and we return to work and school, discussions will center on what you got for Christmas. Was Santa nice to you? What did Santa leave under your tree? How did you spend your holidays? I don’t think I’ve ever heard of anyone anxious to tell their friends what a wonderful candlelight service they went to or how much they were inspired by “the reason for the season”. I don’t recall anyone talking about the gift of eternal life they received from God’s gift to mankind. A week later the average person will make their New Year’s resolutions. Have you ever noticed how resolutions almost always seem to be about self? Lose weight, read more books, quit smoking, eat healthier – this list goes on. While those are indeed good things, they do little for anyone else. Try this instead – resolve to volunteer at a soup kitchen or homeless shelter. Go to church regularly and volunteer for some of the ministry opportunities they have. Make a promise to donate time and money to helping people who need it. Resolve to reconcile broken relationships and to give forgiveness whether deserved or not. Let’s make 2012 The Year That’s Not About Me. By now I’ve probably been called a Scrooge and a killjoy by just about everyone who has read this far. I don’t want to take anything away from the joy and happiness that anyone feels at Christmas. It really is a lovely time of year. Please go and bless and be blessed. Who knows, maybe this time next year we can give Jesus the front seat on his birthday and start relegating Santa and Co. to folklore status.