I haven’t written it down yet, but I’m mentally working on my Christmas list. This year, it’s not going to be an itemized inventory of all the things I need to buy to make our holiday perfect and meaningful, but instead a list of all the things I don’t need to buy so that I can make this Christmas truly meaningful to others. (Candles come to mind…Our house can smell like a regular Christmas factory after I’ve been candle shopping.)
This season, NorthStar is challenging its members to take the focus of Christmas off of creating warm and fuzzy holiday moments for ourselves, and instead focus on the things that break God’s heart. Things like poverty. Orphans. Disease. When you look at issues like that, things like a new tree topper to replace the one that broke awhile back, Zhu Zhu Pets (if you don’t know what they are, Google them), and even evergreen-scented candles just don’t mean as much. Money saved on things that seemed so necessary for a joyful Christmas can instead be used for things that truly are necessary for the lives of others.
I’ve learned through the years that we don’t need as much as we think we need to have a Merry Christmas. Every now and then (ok, quite frequently) I don’t send cards. I stress about the perfect picture, I end up sending way too many and before you know it a hundred dollars is spent on something that will be thrown away. And you know what? Christmas goes on, I haven’t been disowned, and I still have friends. A few years ago we made another big change in our Christmas traditions. After a morning of feasting on cinnamon rolls and all of the other goodies that practically decorate the house on Christmas morning, we would have a big Christmas dinner…usually turkey, stuffing, pretty much a repeat Thanksgiving but with no parade. A few years ago it dawned on us that we didn’t need that big Christmas dinner. For one, people are usually full before they even sit down. For two, somebody always has to run around like a Luke 10 Martha . And then there are the dishes.
So now, we put a big pot of clam chowder on the stove, a few appetizers strategically located out of the dog’s reach, and we help ourselves when we want it. We spend our time playing games and enjoying the company of family.
In the end, our bellies and our wallets thank us. And this Christmas, although we may never be personally thanked, we know someone else that Christ died for is thanking us too.
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