Re: Christmas Season Craziness!!!!

it stinks when we spend so much time buying gifts for the kids, they open there presents at light speed, than play with the dogs bone for the rest of the week.

Sometimes i just want to buy them one thing. Sometimes i want to buy them more.

No matter what they will forget what they got for Christmas in 3 weeks.

I think it would be awesome to start a tradition of taking them somewhere to give to people that can't afford to give to there family. I think our family's would remember this for the rest of there lives.

We all tend to forget what Christmas is really about.

Re: Christmas Season Craziness!!!!

I think as with everything else we need to strive for balance at Christmas. I love the traditions and the nostalgia of Christmas. I even love the crowds. There's this budding excitement that starts to well up in me as soon as the weather turns cold. I know the world has its Scrooges, but on the whole it seems people are just that much nicer and the part of me that lives in the Rockwell painting in my head could just shout for the beauty of it.
In the past I have been swept up in the commercial aspects of the Holiday before knowing Christ. And there is still a part of me that just longs to add to my friend's and family's excess by getting them the "perfect gift" (read Jeanne's blog at adventconspiracy). We want to show the people we love how much they mean to us and unfortunatly most of us think that involves extravagent baubles. Let's be extravagent with our time and our compassion and our thoughfulness!
What I loved about the advent site is that they made it clear that it's not a sin to spend money at Christmas, but when Christmas starts to be about spending money we have a problem. Balance.
I think as Christians our Christmas traditions should look different, not alien or detatched, but certainly different. If we are just as caught up in the commercialism we are hypocrits and why should the world listen to us? Christmas is such an easy time to invite people to church, we should all be doing at least that much. I hope everyone has a safe and merry Christmas.

Re: Christmas Season Craziness!!!!

There is something I have learned in the past few years about this whole thing of Christmas. While it is nice to buy something for family and friends, I have realized it means so much more to just spend time with your family and friends and discussing why we are celebrating Christmas. Children rarely know the what Christmas is really supposed to be about and adults go into debt to please their children. I really don't understand that concept. I really hope that one day people will realize that the important part of Christmas is about Jesus coming to earth so that He could atone for our sins. It's not about the best deals you can find or the perfect gift for someone. My question is, why do we wait until Christmas time or birthdays to get someone we love the "perfect gift?" And what is the "perfect gift?" In my thought the perfect gift to someone is to help them find Christ. It's not about getting them the newest ipod or that tie Dad thought he liked. I have decided that instead of wasting money I really don't have to waste I would talk to as many people as I can about Christ and hopefully a few of them will accept Christ into their lives. Everything I buy this year (which will be minimal) will be in hopes of moving someone farther down their spiritual journey with Christ.

Re: Christmas Season Craziness!!!!

When my daughter was 18, her friend, Molly's dad was dying from a brain tumor. During the first week of December the two were seriously talking and saying that they were praying that the father would die before Christmas so that he would be in heaven to celebrate the biggest birthday party in the universe. These girls were 18, mind you, not little kids. That's a profound faith to be able to pray to have the father die. The birthday thing hit me so I am suggesting that on Christmas day we remember to pray and have a brithday cake and invite Jesus to our party.

Re: Christmas Season Craziness!!!!

Chirstmas has always been my favorite time of year, but now it just makes me feel down. I feel happy in a way, but deep inside I'm longing for the Christmases I used to have when my parents were still together, now my Christmases just aren't the same. I can't hel but envy those who are with their families, but in third world countries it's a million times worse. One valuable thing I've learned about myself now that my family isn't together on Christmas is that the presents aren't my favorite part, I thought they were, but they aren't. Now that my parents are divorced I get twice as many presents and I'm about half as happy as I was before. Yeah, I sound like a selfish brat, I need to stop feeling sorry for myself. Christmas just sometimes brings out the bitter side of me, and I'm very optimistic. I get really tired of the Christmas songs, they're nice for a while but they get annoying. I can't stand to here "O Come Let us Adore Him", I use to love that osng, and I know it's a good song, but it makes me feel awful. The last year my parents were married, on Christmas Eve at church I sang that as a solo, my first solo. My dad has a drinking problem, he's straightened it out but it was still a problem at that time. He always broke promises, he promised he'd come watch me. When I went to sing my solo I scanned the sanctuary for my dad, I saw pretty much my whole family except him, he never came. I have forgiven my dad but it still upsets me, this year I'm just going to try to concentrate on the true meaning of Christmas, it's best that way, I need to just appreciate what we have. And on this overconsumtion thing, yeah it doesn't sound too good, but if it's good for the economy, I guess I'm not that upset about it. If something doesn't help our econoy we will be going through major rises in inflation fo rthe next few years, that basically means, depression. My dad thinks that a sign of end times, but I think taht the end of the world is too unpredictable, but there will be signs and wonders, I just pay attention to Israel, but they always seem to have some sort of issue. I don't want to dwell on these awful things that is going on in our economy, but it's hard not to.

Re: Christmas Season Craziness!!!!

Carol, that is very nicely put - invite Jesus to your party. It reminds me of something Beth Moore says. She always claps for the Lord when she feels so led, she called it a clap offering. In doing so she said she hopes He'll come back for an encore!

Re: Christmas Season Craziness!!!!

Christmas is essentially a celebration of life. It is a day set aside to remember a gift given in love. Somewhere along the way, our society has made it simply about gift-giving. Don't get me wrong, I love gifts just as much as the next person, but the season has been overrun with more, bigger, better. It has been turned into a circus of consumerism. Getting Christmas back begins and ends in your home, with your family. Christmas traditions built around love and Christ's birth and ultimate death should be fostered with our children from a very early age. The Christmas story should be told with emphasis placed on the reason Christ was born, how he was born poor and humble, and what his birth, life, and death mean to and for us. Children need to be taught this by their parents, not the church, not the school, not the government, not the media but in each and every home. Children need to be reminded of what Christ's birth and death have done for us every day and modeled in our parenting and in how we live our lives. The only way Christmas is going to be taken back is if we start one person at a time to live, share, and celebrate His birth everyday of every year-moment by moment.

Re: Christmas Season Craziness!!!!

I totally agree with you Daisy. Parents need to teach their children about the true meaning of Christmas. God gave parents a large responsibilty, to teach the Word of god to them. It is a blessing to have parents that do that. A parent that doesn't do so can put a wrath on themselves and their children, that's very sad. I wish every parents taught their children the true meaning of Christmas, but sadly most of the children think it's all about Santa. I am very blessed to have Christiam parents.