It’s almost here!

I’m still thinking about Christmas… It’s almost here!  It’s this weekend!  How is it, that something that occurs every single year, on the exact same day, can sneak up on us and leave us feeling stressed?

Every year, about this time, I say, “I’m going to starting planning earlier next year!” But do I? Nope, not really.  Oh sometimes I start buying gifts here and there during the year, but often I forget about them!

This year as I say that, I’m talking more about the event.  You know, the baking, the candy making and all that.  I need to start buying the ingredients earlier, I need to plan and know what I want to make sooner… you know, not wait till the week before and then have to go to 5 different stores (we don’t have that many here locally) trying to get it all.

I don’t think it should be this hard and honestly, right now at 4am, I’m really contemplating whether or not we even NEED all that!! Or do I really need it anyway.  Too much sugar its’t good for me and once it’s made and here in my house… well, I can’t stop eating it!  So why do I make all this?  

Oh, we are going to give it away!  But we have to get it all made first and in the mean time, “here, let me try that, just one piece… okay maybe one more”… and then before I know it I’ve eaten so much we need to make more!!

Okay, it’s not quite that bad but almost!!  I was talking to sister on the phone yesterday, and I pace while I talk and I just kept walking by the tins of goodies and just grabbing a piece and… well, yeah, once I started I couldn’t stop!  And Y’ALL!  I NEED TO STOP!!

I’m not sure giving sweet treats to friends and neighbors is a smart idea for me… It’s not even a cheap idea anymore!

Have the holidays always been about gorging ourselves on unhealthy foods? 

I don’t know, I think as I get older… I’m not really sure how to put into words my thoughts and feelings.  I talked the other day about how things have changed and consumerism, (not consumerism as in too many gifts but as in what do we buy for those who just buy what they when they want it…) but I feel like it’s changed in other ways too. 

It’s like in someways, it’s become a fight… a fight to save something that doesn’t even need saving and in that fight, we’re losing people…. Yeah, I’m having trouble putting this into words.

I don’t know… I’m probably afraid of causing discord, or upsetting someone with my thoughts, and that is probably why I’m having trouble.  

Well, I’m just going to do my best…

For me, Christmas has always been about giving.  We give gifts because the Wise Men brought gifts. We give gifts to share love with one another.  It’s about sharing, giving, loving.

Yes, I grew up and raised my kids celebrating the birth of Christ, but even that seems different to me these days. I can’t explain it, but … (and here’s where I worry about offending readers…) it’s almost like some Christians almost take the joy out of the celebration these days.  I hear things like, this isn’t about YOU getting gifts, it’s not about the gifts! It’s about Jesus, It’s about church, it’s about… Keep Christ in Christmas! 

Now, don’t get me wrong, I still very intentionally put out my Nativity, thinking about each piece as I place it. But you know, I think about Jesus and who he is to me and what I’ve learned from his life as I place the shepherds near and the shepherd boy nearest the manger.

I think about how Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me” and how I feel adult Jesus would have wanted to the child up front and close.  I think about how he brought people, all kinds of people, rich, poor, young, old, sick, healthy… together and how he commanded us to love one another as I place the shepherds and wise men together, no one above the other just all there to see this precious baby. To celebrate what they thought would be a new beginning, a new hope for the world, for themselves and their families. To celebrate what they hoped would be coming as this baby grew up… an end to oppression, of slavery and so much more.  They hoped that this baby would bring so much to the world.

And he did.  He brought lessons of love, humility, compassion.  

So, yeah, for me Christmas IS about giving, giving of time in making treats to share, in shopping for the perfect gift (even though that’s getting soooo hard these days).  The gift of love in giving of my time and myself.  

I think that by taking away the joy around the tree and the lights and the gift giving, the complaining about all of that and the complaint about taking Christ out of Christmas and so on it’s starting to take some of the joy out of the season for me. 

If you are a Christian, only you can take Christ out of Christmas for you. No one else can do that for you.  It’s a choice we each make for ourselves and honestly, complaining about that very thing, is the opposite of what Christmas is all about anyway.

For me, well, I think Jesus would be all about bringing joy to others with the light displays, he’s be about giving all the gifts to family and friends, he’d be about sharing our bounty (treats) with our neighbors.  He’s be all about the Love that is supposed to come with this season. 

I think he’d be dismayed about the fighting over whether or not we should say, “Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays” or the fighting in who owns him and his name… I think he’d be thinking, “People!  Just Love One Another already!!  Did you learn nothing from me?” 

Oh, wow, well, I kind of got off on a tangent I didn’t mean to go down this morning… this is what my brain does this early in the morning.  But really folks, this Christmas, I hope you enjoy the season and spread some cheer, share some love, and offer compassion to ALL those near and far.  Let’s put the joy back in the season!  

But maybe we could stop coming up with all these new treats that I can’t stop eating!  Maybe instead of treats, I should give more healthy veggie platters or charcuterie boards!  Maybe I need to get back to the gifts of fruit baskets!! 

Oh that brings back memories… not baskets but fruit… I’ll save that for another post.