I may come to regret saying this…..

I often hear complaints about how “materialized” Christmas has become. How secularized, and “missing the point” the whole Christmas season had degraded into. Also I have noticed, as you have, that when stores set polices to eliminate “Christmas” from their signs and advertising, many in the Christian community are outraged. Perhaps rightly so. My confusion comes from wondering what part in Christ’s birth does Wal-Mart have?

Understand that I am not condoning their action, nor do I believe Christians should ignore it. In America we vote with our wallets. Buy products from vendors you agree with. If this years most coveted trinket is 10% cheaper at the store with the “Happy Holiday” sign than the store with the manger scene in the front window, who gets your business? How about 25%? How about if the MSRP on the product is $100.00? What about $500? What about $1,000? How much might our integrity be on sale for?

Christmas presents are fine. Trees are great. Carols tell the story in a way that touches our hearts. Love ‘em all. To some extent however we have allowed the culture to take over our celebration of Christ’s birth. Lets not get into the “it started as a pagan holiday” or “Jesus was not born on Dec 25” discussion. The day has been set aside, sanctified, for Christians to focus on the birth of THE Savior. To the extent that trees, gifts and carols lead us to the manger and cause us to rejoice in Him, they are good. A great discount, regardless of the advertising used to promote it, will very rarely cause me to reflect on Christ’s birth.

If a person rejects Jesus as the Messiah, what reason does he have to celebrate His birth? Christmas sets the stage for Easter, by far the more significant of the two. Our culture, for the most part, has come to rejects His resurrection. How then can we expect it to regard His birth with the same reverence we hold for it? How could they sing with us, "Go tell it on the mountain that Jesus Christ is Lord." ?

What if rather than spending six months income on trinkets and do-dads, we boycott the notion that Christmas has something to do with shopping? Perhaps God is returning to us our holiday.

...Nicks

UPDATE: Mike and his pals at Waving or Drowning are weighing in on the issue, at the expense of those who might see things differently.

Comments

[Redbeard]

What if rather than spending six months income on trinkets and do-dads, we boycott the notion that Christmas has something to do with shopping?

Interesting. I'm anti-shopping to begin with, so anti-shopping with a purpose is an easy one for me. On the other hand, good luck convincing Mrs. Redbeard that we need to avoid shopping for the Christmas season. I suspect we'll have an easier time convicing her that "no-shave '06" is a good idea.

For what it's worth, the Catholic side of my family has decided not to exchange gifts this year and instead is going to get together for a bulk donation to a charity.

[Laurie K.]

I'm well aware, as are most Christians I'm sure, that shopping and Jesus have nothing really to do with one another. However, in addition to reflection, December 25 has also become a celebration, in which one of the traditions is the exchanging of gifts with loved ones in order to give pleasure. This is a lovely thing, and one need not be so irresponsible as to spend six months' income to do so. I never have, and neither has anyone in my family. What bugs me, as a Christian, is not that people choose to say "happy holidays!" to one another. This is a perfectly nice and appropriate thing to say, especially if one is not sure if another is a Christian or not. What bugs is the forbidding of the words "Merry Christmas" in some places that clearly are making their money off a Christian festival. They're not making their living off Hannukah, Kwanzaa, Diwali, or anything else people are celebrating. And that makes these silly merchant policies so irritating.

[Rick]

I left the following at Mike's place, which was promptly deleted. You know, tolerance of opposing views and the like over there is a big, big deal...

Robert's position on this, as I see it, is merely one more straw man argument... I guess we shouldn't be surprised by that...

I don't know anyone that would raise this issue in the manner Robert has raised it and I'm thinking Robert doesn't either.

Let's be honest about what this post is about. It's yet another doorway to what seems to be a rather popular room at Waving or Drowning, the smearing of believers that don't believe the way Mike and his pals think they ought.

The t-shirt vendor is merely venting in my less than humble view. If you read more than simply the t-shirts being hawked, you'll see that they have a problem with retail outfits who depend largely on the Christmas season to make money and who won't allow their employees to wish anyone a Merry Christmas. Setting aside the problem that I have with how the whole Christmas thing has become something less than Christian, in many ways, I see no reason why some would be disallowed to even mention the word Christmas.

It's ridiculous. Almost as ridiculous as Robert's straw man argument... but not quite.

If there's room to celebrate other holidays with proper holiday relevant greetings, why should Christmas be any different?

[HarryTick™]

Who sanctified the date for Christians? I doubt that Jesus did. I probably would go so far as to say that God didn't either.

I was personally thinking of celebrating July 4th as Christmas. I think the baby Jesus would've been scared to death of the fireworks, but I think it will be easier to get people to celebrate it with me if it is associated with barbecues, beer, picnics and fireworks.

[Rick]

HarryT... at least we agree that it's an event worth celebrating...

:)

Thanks for stopping by BlogDaddy...

[Nicks]

Sanctify simply means “set apart” and sometimes means “set apart for Gods purposes”. Sometimes God instructed people and things to be set apart, sometimes people did it on their own (Purim)

[MarcV]

You've got your Mothers Day, Fathers Day, Grandparents Day ... and Christmas, which is the de facto Kids Day.

Most of us hopefully have had some good Christmas memories from our childhoods. As parents we want Christmas to be a special day for our children. Though we may talk the stern talk, it's our desire to treat/spoil them, giving them good gifts (as our Heavenly Father gives us) and loving them as much as possible in the brief time that we get to hold them.

It's up to each one of us, one heart at a time, to turn the massive materialism boat around and bring Christmas back to a birth celebration, where we recognize that God loved us so much that He gave us His only Son.

[HarryTick™]

Rick,

Actually, I'm probably the Scroogiest person I know. Christmas is just a day I don't have to work (those are always good days). Years ago when I was in Honduras, me and my fellow soldiers wrote "Bah Humbug!" on the side of our hootch for Christmas. It's one of my favorite Christmas memories! But then again, Scrooge has become a symbol of an anti-Christmas spirit that the commercialization tries to capitalize one.

I don't begrudge anyone Christmas or how they choose to celebrate it anymore. I once was really Scroogie about the commercialization of the season, imagining that Jesus and God were somehow offended by it. It's just not how I feel anymore. Celebrate it reverently or very secularized or not at all.

Merry Christmas!