Christmas to me. As a kid, I looked forward to getting a new toy. Nothing expensive. Playing games was always a bigger deal for me whether it be penny ante poker or dominoes. As a gift giver, I try to keep all gifts at a reasonable price. There are a couple of notable exceptions, but I do give these same people gifts without regard to holiday. I look forward to Christmas the most as an adult is spending time with Houston friends and family. This year kind of sucks in that I won't be able to take as much time off as in year's past.
Regardless of when Christ was born, this is when we as Christians celebrate it. Christ may have very little to do with Christmas save the name to you and others that choose not to make it a religious experience, and that is fine, but Christ has everything to do with Christmas to me, my family, and many other Christians. While you and others may only see a holiday about famiy and exchanging gifts, I constantly have Christ in mind when celebrating this holiday. It is a tradition for my family to read the story of Christs birth every Christmas Eve. Yes we give gifts (just as the wisemen came bearing gifts), and that is a big part of our celebration. I encourage you and other people to celebrate the holiday any way you wish, but I have to completely disagree with you when you say that it has very little to do with Christ.
my birthday is May 1st. if 1000 years from now, people celebrated my birthday on another day in the calendar, would it matter? the point is not the technical day on the calendar, no worries...the point is the birthday of Christ, the gift of God. i have no problem with a holiday that celebrates family. i'm not sure the consumeristic (is that a word) nature of the holiday necessarily does that, at this point. but again...if you're asking me what Christmas means to me and other believers that I know...it is vastly different from that which is celebrated by the rest of the country which they call Christmas, or X-Mas.
x-mas is a great holiday...If you choose not to celebrate, more power to you... I do believe the commercialism gets ridiculous, but underneath all of it, its a time for family, closeness and happiness... btw, I still over load my kids with useless crap, but thats what I do...
Screw it. I'm buying gifts for everyone I know. Debt be damned. I'm also hanging lights, decorating the tree, drinking egg nog and partying like it is 1999.
My family used to be in a church that was so die hard Christian it didn't believe in celebrating Christmas because it was not proven to be the true birthday of Chirst, so they felt it was just a pagan holiday sprinkled with religious overtones smothered in secret sauce wrapped in an enigma or some ****. Yeah good thing we got the **** outta there. I never really cared about getting presents are not, but as I have grown older I realize that it isn't about that at all. What other times do families come together and share with each other? It's all about relationships which are the key to life, it's about sharing and caring and all that hallmark ****. Yeah God digs that regardless of it not being Jesus' b-day or not.
I agree that Christmas is still a good thing. If you let it become overly materialistic, that's your own problem. Of course people are going to try to make money from it. They do with everything. Still, I like the pure generosity of this time of year... buying stuff for people, both your family and charities, and not worrying about the dent it will make in your wallet. Special music (even though I don't like the sappy songs being played on most loudspeakers this year... it occurred to me that most stores and restaurants are afraid to play too many traditional carols that mention anything about Christ's birth). For those of us who are musicians, we get to learn different things and/or bring out the same songs we play this time every year (and no one will be sick of them). It's a break from the routine. Nobody minds it getting cold and dark because they're busy and everything has lights on it anyway. I like the colors and smells and sounds. (and let's not forget the food... not that we need it, but it's still good) I do think Christmas is best enjoyed when you have children around who are not yet jaded by it. Sometimes they focus too much on what they're going to get, but that's not all of it. There are all the other holiday activities. Finally, it's good to see your family. I used to be a big "Christmas" person. I would even wear nothing but Christmas clothing for the whole month of December. I have trouble getting quite so into it now... probably since there's not as much to look forward to in terms of family. Some important people are gone now, and the rest of us are so busy working and live so far away from each other that it's hard to have much of a holiday. The solution would probably be to either move closer to the larger groups (the extended family) or have some kids... weird being in a family with all adults... but I'm the only one who can have kids, and I don't particularly feel like doing it right now. Also, things get kind of dull around the college during semester break. All the Christmas party type stuff is already happening, now, so everybody can go home later. I still haven't gotten my lights up or cards sent... finals, you know. It's a great season to get close to your family and take a break from the routine.
It occurred to me briefly that someone might think of that, but I couldn't think of any other way to word it. Actually, that might be a good example to use in my Critical Thinking class tonight, about quoting something out of context. Except that I don't want to give my students ideas or have them trying to picture... that. If they don't already. You know how guys are. Even if they don't want to think about it, even if you try not to give them cause to think about it, even if they wouldn't be interested in you... they think about it anyway.
