The Truth Is More Important Than The Facts:

on monday night Wade gave a little rant on Christmas and gift giving. having given what he said a little more thought i have decided he's wrong. wade advocated ceasing to give gifts in opposition to the consumerism and greed that now permeates our western culture. i have come to conclusion that not giving gifts is in fact giving up on Christmas.. or at the very least admitting defeat. what i believe we should be doing is reclaiming the original spirit of giving gifts (as the wise men did, this whole thing about the gift of Christ is wonky as that's more of an Easter thing.) we should give gifts that symbolize who a person is and who they are to you, not what they want. also we should give gifts because we want to. so many things these days revolve around implied obligation (do unto other so they'll have to do unto you.) if i get you a gift you should get me a gift. if i send you a card you should send me a card. if i have you over for diner.. and so on. and if you really want to reclaim the religious celebration that Christmas is supposed to be, on Christmas morning GO TO CHURCH. go to any church, try a different church, but pick up your family and go to church. "but Christmas is for family". riiiight, and going to church will destroy your family and you won't get to spend any time with them? except you went to church together.

and about the fact we don't put as much emphasis on Easter as we do Christmas. this is very true, and in our churches we should certainly make a much bigger deal about Easter. lent, palm sunday, good friday, Easter, the holy week, ascensions day. lots of time there to make a big deal about something that is a big deal.

(i may need to edit this yet)

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I think Christmas was originally a pagan holiday before the Pope declared it a celebration of Christ's birth way back in the day, so really people can be as greedy as they want to be and it has nothing to do with Christ unless they make it be. I just personally think it makes much more MONEYsense to buy for peoples' birthdays instead, because you're buying gifts all throughout the year and not all in one month. Plus I think it's a little more significant if you bestow people with gifts because you're celebrating their life, and not some pagan holiday. :)

Posted by: Crystal | December 14, 2005 9:48 PM

by that logic we shouldn't celebrate any of our so called "christian" holidays. if i remember correctly easter was originally a pagan holiday, and good friday is only where it is because of christian meaning bestowed upon easter. lent isn't a biblical holiday it's just something the catholic church made up. thanksgiving (or the harvest festival)is a pagan holiday (thought some try to pass it off as a pilgrim holiday.) and why celebrate birthdays. so what, you were born on that day, you're one day older than you were yesterday, big deal? if you really want to get serious about this why don't we go back and celebrate the feasts and holidays of the old testament. there are 12 festivals in the old testament of which the only one mentioned in the modern christian church; passover. the sabbath was a much bigger deal as far as the meaning it had in peoples lives but we don't take that to task in our modern "busy" lives. hell, someone gets married you partied for a week.

also as far as gifts go, that's a personal choice each of us makes. do we give the gifts we're expected to give or do we give the gifts we want to give?

if it's just down to money, do what you need to do.

Posted by: eustace (matt w) | December 14, 2005 10:49 PM

yup, I agree with Crys. Giving up on Christmas? Bah! But then I think that everyone's perspective is different because not everyone shows their love/respect/care for other people through gifts. I know I'm HORRIBLE when it comes to gifts that I'm supposed to give to show I care. Unfortunately we've lumped everyone into the same box and anyone that can't meet the expectations of gift giving is a scrooge or something. Oh well . . .

Posted by: caro | December 14, 2005 10:51 PM

Well, well well... Let's see... If you really think about it everything we do with our life should be a sacrifice to God for the glory of His Kingdom. If we truly live that out it doesn't matter what significance Christmas may or may not have. I think we all agree it's not actually the birthday of the Christ and most likely is based on the winter solstice festivals of past pagan nations. Now we have something different, however; it's become a part of our culture, and a huge part at that. So here's my question: "Is participating in our culture something that God would have us do or not?"

Posted by: Jer | December 15, 2005 1:38 PM

that, Jer, is a very good (and very anabaptist) question . . . must ponder . . .

Posted by: caro | December 15, 2005 5:38 PM

Christmas was never a pagan holiday. the date it is on used to be one but was changed to Christmas over 1645 years ago when Rome converted to Christianity. it was antempt by the Pope to replace the pagan solstice festival with a Christian celecbration. before that, early Christians celebrated epiphany; the visit of the magi to the Christ child. just to clarify.

Posted by: eustace (matt w) | December 15, 2005 9:05 PM

The Truth Is More Important Than The Facts

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