Merry Christmas - It's 85 and Sunny!

So Christmas is now less than a week away. Only by the advent wreath at church could I verify this for you. Sure, there are some shops pushing Christmas supplies, and I'll hear the occasional reggae Christmas tune. But Christmas just isn't Christmas without snow and at least one good "O, Come, O, Come, Emmanuel." :) I've experienced Christmas in a tropical climate before, when I was in Ecuador for Christmas 2004. While snow and Christmas hymns were lacking there, as well, I had the anticipation of at least seeing my parents and one of my sisters over the holiday season. This year, no such luck. Fortunately, the wonders of technology will make "face-to-face" communication feasible.


There was a time when what was important to me at Christmas were the presents. At some point in our lives, most of us experience the desire to get the latest electronic gadget or some necessary (or unnecessary) item that we don't quite feel like purchasing ourselves. But I can remember very specifically the sentiment and very vaguely the details of when that desire got the best of me, and how my attitude toward Christmas has changed.

It was Christmas sometime in the late '90s. I must have been about 13 or 14 years old. I was wanting and expecting some sort of video game system to upgrade from my N64 that was probably all of two or three years old, I think. At that time, as family, we were still opening presents on Christmas morning, rather than on Christmas Eve as we do now. After gifts, we would have been headed to celebrate Christmas with my mom's side of the family.

Whatever it was that I was expecting, I didn't get it and I was not a happy camper. My family will gently remind me that in my teen years, I wasn't always the most pleasant person to be around anyway, but this was pure pissed-offedness. Unfounded. But that was my reality. I'm pretty sure I didn't thank my parents for the presents I did get (and if I did, it was a grumbly thank you), and I spent most of the rest of Christmas day upset over the thing I didn't get.

I'm not going to lie and say I had an epiphany the next day about "the real meaning of Christmas," but I did feel pretty horrible about how I acted. It almost makes me shudder thinking about it now, how wrapped up I had become in the what at Christmas and how little import I was giving to the who and the why.

Since then, and especially over the past several years, I've grown tired of the capitalism of Christmas. I've scoffed at the "Christmas creep"--the way Christmas keeps creeping closer and closer to starting in June. I've enjoyed more and more all the Christmas hymns that are sung only one month a year. I've gotten more and more drawn to just sitting and being with my family and not anticipating the presents I will or will not get. I've gotten to a place where the who and the why really matter more than the what.

That's the real reason why this Christmas will be different from any other I've experienced before. I won't be at home to help pick out the Christmas tree with my dad and sister Sara. I won't be able to help decorate the tree with my mom. I won't be at home to decorate Christmas cookies (or inundate them with sprinkles) with my niece and nephew. I won't be able to compete with my sister Katie to see who does a better rendition of Stephen Colbert's version of The King of Glory. I won't be able to demolish my hip trying to surf down an icy hill in a plastic sled with my cousins. I won't be playing a good game of Garbage with my aunts and uncles.

Point is, Christmas is much more than the gift exchange. I could probably name, I don't know, maybe a dozen gifts I've gotten for Christmas in my lifetime. And I could probably name even fewer of the gifts I've given to other people, as bad as that is. I'm not pretending to be the first to give the message that Christmas isn't about the gifts. But it's not just that it's not about the gifts. It's about being proactive about the flipside, what it is about. It's about spending time with people you care about, if you're fortunate enough to have them in your life. I'ts about recognizing the miracle of God becoming human in order to begin a process that would end in what we celebrate as Easter. It's about the love that should permeate our everyday existence and would go a long way to solving problems if we would cultivate it.

I know it's probably too late to encourage any alteration to Christmas shopping habits for this year, but whatever you've gotten for other people or whatever you get from other people, try to make sure it's more than just a gift exchange. Take some time to be with them and listen to them and share with them. Take some time to appreciate the words of the Christmas hymns you might otherwise sing mindlessly at church. And if it's not too much trouble, find someone you like to spend time with and build a snowman for me.