Tag Archives: Christmas

Extravagance

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The lists of odd and extravagant Christmas gifts are beginning to appear. Reminds me of something I wrote for the Hope for Life blog last year:

Extravagance

I have to confess: I like looking at extravagant Christmas gifts. Not out of any desire to give or receive them. I just like to marvel at what’s available.

Some of them are amazingly expensive. Like the Ferrari FF listed at Neiman Marcus; it can be yours for only $390,000. You may want to hurry. They only have 10 available.

For mom, Amazon lists a black pearl necklace for a mere $76,500 dollars. Don’t worry… the item ships for free.

Another option is a gift card from Halcyon jets. A $5 million gift card! Actually, it’s called a Dream Card, and it gives you full access to their complete fleet of jets, as well as a private aviation specialist and a personal concierge.

For the truly discriminating, might I suggest you consider purchasing an island? You can get a lovely 20-acre island off the coast of Rio de Janeiro for a mere $8 million. Sorry… only one per customer.

Most of us won’t be spending quite as much on Christmas gifts, though many will spend more than they should. There’s something about the Christmas season that makes us want to give gifts in a big way.

However, we know that the greatest gift has already been given. No one can match the extravagance of our Heavenly Father, who gave us what the apostle Paul calls an “indescribable gift.” (2 Corinthians 9:15) God gave us His own Son, not as a Christmas gift, but as the gift that never stops giving. God’s Son, Jesus, came and died, to give us all the right to claim the gift of eternal life.

The apostle John famously wrote, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16–17)

In this season of giving and receiving, let’s take time to remember the greatest gift of all: God’s Son. And let’s make sure that we’ve claimed the gift He offers each of us: the gift of eternal life.

photo by Michael Connors

I like Christmas music

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Christmas in Argentina is very different from Christmas in Texas. For one thing, it’s the middle of summer. It’s associated more with fireworks and eating outside than chestnuts roasting over an open fire. (Does anybody actually do that?)

I enjoy both sets of traditions, but one thing I miss when in Argentina is Christmas music. It’s not completely lacking there, but it’s not an integral part of the Christmas experience. I know it can really get overdone here, but since I mainly listen to ESPN radio, I don’t tend to get overdosed.

I took piano lessons as a child. One of our two big performance events each year was a Christmas Sing-Along. Each student learned to perform a Christmas song, and the others sang along as the victim performer played. One of the goals our teacher had was to instill in us an appreciation of and knowledge of Christmas songs. Mrs. Roberts did her job well.

In recent years, I’ve become a fan of Straight No Chaser, an a cappella group out of Indiana University. I was introduced to them through the following video, their rendition of “The Twelve Days of Christmas.” I know it’s early, but we’ve already waited 11 months. Enjoy!

How would you remake Christmas?

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So how would you fix Christmas? Maybe “fix” isn’t the word I want. How would you make Christmas into exactly what you want it to be?

Would you make it more religious? More family oriented? Less consumeristic?

Would it be place oriented, like the Jewish feasts in the Bible? Would it be completely separate from the religious realm?

Would there be more gift giving? Less gift giving? More music or less?

Would fruitcake and egg nog have any place?

How would you remake Christmas? We’re talking magic wand here, one-wish genie scenario. What would you do?

Ranting on the ranters

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There’s another side to the Christmas debate: those who want to force other believers to stop celebrating Christmas. While I’m bothered by those that want turn Christmas into a holy day (more than others), I’m especially perturbed by those who try to shame other Christians into not enjoying the holiday season.

The theme of the passages about special days in the New Testament is to not allow yourself to be judged, neither for observing them nor for choosing not to. (The discussion in Galatians is about practicing Judaism as a path to salvation)

The bashers are wrong. Sinfully wrong. It’s one thing to choose not to put up lights or trees or wreaths. It’s another thing all together to condemn those who make a different choice. It’s a sinful attitude, a divisive spirit that does nothing but damage the body of Christ.

“Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another?” (Romans 14:4)

Leave them alone. Let them celebrate. Spend your fighting energy on more important things.

Celebrating the Christian calendar

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Thanks to all who commented on yesterday’s post, especially to those who pointed me to other articles. Looking at all that’s been said (I’d encourage you to read Jay Guin’s post “Regarding Christmas,” then look through some of the links in the comments section as well), I hesitate to add much more.

But of course I will. :-)

Over at Brian Nicklaus’ blog, I left a comment stating that I’m more comfortable with Charles Dickens’ Christmas than I am the pope’s. I’m glad the world is thinking about Christ in even the tiniest way. I worry about what Christians are doing about it.

The question bears asking “Why December 25?” The answer that it’s an ancient tradition doesn’t fly with me. The earliest references to Christians celebrating Jesus’ birth refer to it as an oddity, not as general practice. Early Reformers saw it as a Catholic tradition, not one pertaining to general Christianity.

There is an ancient tradition of celebrating tomorrow, December 8, as the day of the Immaculate Conception of Mary. The same groups kept that alive all these years that preserved the December 25 date. Why has Protestantism in general accepted their testimony on one celebration and not on the other? [For those wanting to return the U.S. to her Christian roots, remember that this is the patronal saint day of the United States]

Many have celebrated Mary’s ascension to heaven on August 15, with traces back to the fourth century. It’s a public holiday in over a dozen countries. Why not hold onto that ancient tradition as well?

And why is so little attention given to Epiphany? Whether you follow the Western churches (celebrating the visit of the Magi) or the Eastern churches (celebrating Jesus’ baptism), this feast is connected with an actual event that we can read about in the Bible, unlike the previous two that I mentioned. (Though some argue that the ascension of Mary is seen in Revelation 12) And if we’re going to sing about the 12 days of Christmas, why do we stop the celebration on the first day and not go through Epiphany, the 12th day?

It’s cool today to say “Let’s connect with historic Christianity by celebrating the Christian calendar.” If we’re really going to do that, we’ve got a lot more dates to add. Why one feast (or two, if you count Easter) and not the others? For more years than not, the bulk of Christendom celebrated these days.

There’s no good answer as to why we would set aside December 25 as the time to commemorate Jesus’ birth. And it doesn’t take much to see that focusing on Jesus’ birth at this one time of year pretty much eliminates any awareness of that event at other times.

I’m convinced of the value of promoting an awareness of Christ at this time and supporting the idea of the “Christmas spirit” in general society. I’m still not convinced of the value of imitating other Christians just for the sake of imitating them. I’m not big on “slippery slope” arguments (as they say, if you accept one of them, you have to accept them all), but this seems to be a step in a dangerous direction. Maybe not the action itself, but the line of reasoning (or lack of reasoning).

So who’ll join me in July to celebrate the coming of Christ?