Christmas Cheer

This year marks my 22nd time to be a Christmas Mommy (i.e. its up to me and my trusty side-kick to "make Christmas happen" for someone else).  There's no magic here, folks, as anyone out there who is trying to make Christmas happen can tell you.  Its a lot of blood sweat and tears and a working credit card doesn't hurt.

Like everyone else, I find myself every year trying to figure out why this is so difficult.  And how I can somehow meet all of the expectations (real or imagined) placed on me while at the same time providing a meaningful experience for those I love.  And by the way have some fun while I'm at it.

I think part of the issue is that our culture has changed, but the holiday tradition has not really morphed with it.  One hundred years ago (or even 50) people in this country led quieter lives we would consider boring.  So when Christmas rolled around each year it was a great time to pull out the stops:  buy some things for your family that you wouldn't ordinarily buy, eat some things that you wouldn't ordinarily eat and drink some things you might not drink on a day-to-day basis.

But now, we buy what we want whenever we want it and feel like we can afford it.  My family will be getting a new TV sometime next year (hopefully one that doesn't weigh 85 pounds and take up a full 6 square feet of space like our current model).  We won't be able to afford that before Christmas, but one day when we feel like we can spare the change we'll toodle over to Sam's Club (or go on Craig's List which is our new favorite website), and we'll buy one.  It will be on an "ordinary" day... maybe even a Tuesday.  We won't wait for a "special" day like someone's birthday or an anniversary or even a Saturday.  

Ditto for eating and drinking.  When I was little, having steak was a BIG DEAL and we only had it when we were lucky enough to go to Western Sizzler after church.  No one cooked steak at home; we ate vegetables and fried chicken at home and steak when we went out.  Now we cook steak at home because it tastes better on our grills than in a restaurant (Sizzler = Yuck and whatever even happened to Bonanza?) and we go to Cracker Barrel if we want home-cooked vegetables and fried chicken.  My grandma found it bizarre that people would go to a restaurant and pay them to make biscuits and gravy...

When I was small, the lights of Christmas were magical.  Now, we have so many gizmo's that have bells and whistles that we see and hear everyday,  there's nothing really special about a little white light, even if it does go off and on randomly (a.k.a. "twinkling").  We're so over-stimulated now, that one more verse of "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" makes us want to chew on tin foil and shave our heads with a cheese grater.

And ALL OF THIS just makes the real Christmas Story that much more beautiful.  That Christ left His home next to the Father, a home that was quiet, warm, probably very clean, and came to rescue us... FROM OURSELVES.  From our over-indulged, over-stimulated, grab-what-you-can-while-you-can culture that absolutely wears us out.

"Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden (HEY THAT'S ME!) and I will give you rest*."

Matthew 11:28

*the REAL kind

That's something to get excited about and have your heart warmed over.