A More Meaningful Christmas

[sunshine]

Click here for the complete article:
http://www.americancatholic.org/News.../CU/ac1201.asp



Celebrating Christmas

So how can a Christian celebrate Christmas, instead of Consumas? It's
not easy, but here are a few suggestions:

Be aware.

The first step is to recognize that commercial Christmas is a non-
Christian and at times even anti-Christian celebration. That's why
Consumas is a good descriptive name: It can consume us.

Take responsibility.

You can't change the culture but you can change your own actions. A
few years ago the comic strip Baby Blues illustrated the way we like
to blame others for what we ourselves have done to Christmas. The
father of the family is explaining to his young daughter, "Tonight is
the night that eight reindeer and Rudolph will land on our roof, and
Santa Claus will slide down our chimney with a big bag of toys for
you."

Naturally enough, the tyke responds, "Wow!"

Dad continues: "Tomorrow morning there will be lots of presents and
candy under the Christmas tree for you and Hammie to open."

The daughter says, "Yay! Oh boy! Toys! Oh boy! Toys! Oh boy! Toys!"
In the last panel, the father looks at the mom and says with obvious
disgust, "The media should be ashamed for turning this into such a
commercial holiday." Don't blame the media for your own willing
seduction.

Present gifts from the heart.

Buying or making a few gifts from the heart is an appropriate way to
share the holy season of Christmas with those you love. The key is to
keep it simple and meaningful. Think of several friends or family
members right now. Do you remember what they gave you for Christmas
last year? Do you think they remember what you gave them? Try to find
the most thoughtful gifts instead of the most hyped; they will be
remembered and your love will be communicated each time your gifts
are used.

Observe Advent.

Maintain the four weeks before Christmas as a time of preparation
instead of acting as though Christmas were already here. Bring out
your Christmas CDs at the beginning of the Christmas season, not the
day after Thanksgiving. When you hear Christmas songs on the radio,
switch stations or turn the radio off. When you hear carols in a
store or an office where you have no control over the music, mentally
think of it as getting ready for the Incarnation that is to come, not
a celebration of what already is.

Opt out of the post-Thanksgiving buying frenzy. A friend of mine buys
gifts throughout the year so that when Advent comes she can bake
cookies and make wreaths with her children instead of spending that
time in a mall (or even online shopping). Join those who celebrate
the day after Thanksgiving as Buy Nothing Day, a 24-hour moratorium
on consumer spending promoted by anti-consumption groups.

You can't celebrate Advent as a spiritual season if you're in a
constant whirl of activity—parties, shopping, the Advent luncheon at
school. Minimize the Advent angst that many people (especially women)
feel by practicing triage to separate what you have control over from
what you don't. Decide what you have to do, what you want to do and
what others expect you to do that doesn't fit into the first two
categories. Increase your Christmas preparation time and reduce your
stress by cutting out the latter.

Watch what you watch.

The weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas Day are a prime time for
many people to watch favorite Christmas TV specials or movies such as
It's a Wonderful Life or Miracle on 34th Street. This year, pay more
attention to your media consumption just as you do to your product
consumption.

Even TV shows or movies that profess to be about "the real meaning of
Christmas" usually aren't. They might be about charity, repentance,
forgiveness, reconciliation. These are all good Christian virtues
certainly. But that's not what Christmas is about. Christmas is about
a divine/human person whose life, death and resurrection teach us
that "God is with us" (Emmanuel) and that God loves us and is alive
and active in our world.

The problem with communicating values, even good ones, instead of
Christ is that commercials attach values to products and use them to
sell products. Better to give than to receive? Buy a present! A time
for forgiveness? Send a card! Need to reconcile with an estranged
family member? Use our long-distance service! These are the kinds of
commercials you're likely to see Christmas specials wrapped around.

A few programs do tell us that Christmas is about Christ and
consumption is not salvation, most notably the classic A Charlie
Brown Christmas. Some others are The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, The
Fourth Wise Man, The Little Drummer Boy, Amahl and the Night Visitors
and Red Boots for Christmas. When aired on TV, though, they're
surrounded and interrupted by commercials. You can circumvent the
barrage of Christmas commercials by taping the good shows and zapping
through the commercials when you watch. Or you can buy or rent the
videos. But remember to keep Advent in your TV and movie watching.

And even with the best Christmas programs, don't stop at watching.
Let that be just the start of interacting with your children,
grandchildren or godchildren. After The Best Christmas Pageant Ever,
go to a Christmas pageant. After A Charlie Brown Christmas, read St.
Luke's entire Nativity story together.

Celebrate all of the Christmas season.

Don't stop on December 25 as the secular season fizzles out. Plan
some of your Christmas-season socializing with family and friends
after Christmas Day. More important, find appropriate celebrations
for the liturgical feasts of the season. For example:

Get all of the immediate family together for dinner on the Feast of
the Holy Family. (In many families this will turn the day into a
major event, especially if there are teenagers and young adults.)

On New Year's Day, when we celebrate the Solemnity of Mary and World
Day of Peace, reflect on Mary's role in the Incarnation as you pray
the joyful mysteries of the rosary for peace.

Take time on the Feast of the Epiphany, a gift-giving day in many
Catholic cultures, to go through your wardrobes and toy chests and
decide what you can now give away after all the new things you
received at Christmas. You can also use the Epiphany to make
decisions about how to donate your time and money in the new year.

The Feast of the Baptism of the Lord reminds us of our own Baptism.
Take this day to reflect on how you have lived out your baptismal
promises.

Little adjustments, right focus

These suggestions are not a program for radical change. Your friends
and family may not even notice what you're up to.

But making these adjustments will help you live the Christmas season
that most people say they want—the one built around a Christian holy
day instead of a commercial holiday.

Dan Andriacco

[frugalmel]

There are some good points in that article. Thanks for posting.

[britbunny]

thanks for that, I agree. I have just celebrated Christmas quietly on my own for the last few years, just surrounding myself with people and things that are important to me.