Christmas is driving me crazy

[ridesawhitehors]

I really do love Christmas. But I am sick to death of secular Christmas and I don’t blame my non-Christian friends who HATE Christmas because they dislike the same things I do about it, as well as having no religious beliefs to support it. I actually admire them for not wanting to celebrate Christmas at all. To me it seems like non Christians have more integrity if they DON’T celebrate Christmas. They only see the consumer driven secular Christmas

Most of my closest friends and my family are non-Christians and we want to have get togethers (parties) for Christmas but it will be so awkward when I am the in some cases the only Christian and the only Christmas they semi-recognize is the secular kind.

I don’t know how to celebrate Christmas with these people.
I wonder if there are parts of todays Christmas traditions that we should just absolutly reject and still have common ground with non-Christians. How do we celebrate Christmas with non-Christians in a way that is joyful? If you strip everything down… what is left in common?

 

[Wolseley]

Just my opinion, but it helps if you remember that there are two holidays that fall at this time of year: Christmas and Annual Capitalist Bacchanalia.

Christmas is a religious liturgical season, of course, that commences at midnight on Dec. 25 and lasts for twelve days, until the Feast of the Epiphany. The purpose of this celebration is to rejoice in the birth of Our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Annual Capitalist Bacchanalia begins the day before Halloween and lasts until precisely midnight on Dec. 24. The purpose of this celebration is for retailers to make a killing on their best sales time during the entire year.

There is nothing wrong with going to a dinner or whatnot with non-Christian friends and enjoying the sparkly lights, the Santas and Frostys, Rudolphs and Grinches, just as long as you recognize that none of this has anything to do with Christmas. All of this stuff is secular jazz that Hallmark and the Coca-Cola Company came up with to improve sales.

Afterwards, of course, you can go to church and properly celebrate what the season is really all about, which is the birth of Jesus.

I have no problem at this time of year, because as a Christian, I can celebrate the Christian holiday while blithely ignoring the other one, if I so choose…I don’t get caught up in the hype and the mad shopping rushes (Wal-Mart and Coca-Cola again), the frantic card-writing (Hallmark’s angle), and all the rest. I buy a few modest gifts for my immediate family—most of which were bought back in July or so, wrapped, and put in a closet—and for the rest, I just coast and relax, and look forward to Midnight Mass.

 

[tonyg]

I often wonder when the Christmas Season comes around, how many people really believe in the true meaning of Christmas. I love Christmas, and look forward to it every year.
I refuse to follow in the footsteps of all the commercial madness. I live on a busy country road, and I make sure to put my manger up ever year so everyone that passes by will see it. I’m sure many are not Christian, I’m sure many are not believers; but I know in my heart when they pass by and see the lights reflecting the pond infront, they think about Christmas.
Jesus asked us to be a light for those who live in darkness. There is no better time for christians to reflect Jesus that in the Christmas season. There are so many little ways for us to shine his light. And if someone who does not believe sees Christ in us they may come to believe the truth, Jesus Christ.

Merry Christmas,
tonyg

 

[ridesawhitehors]

I often wonder when the Christmas Season comes around, how many people really believe in the true meaning of Christmas. I love Christmas, and look forward to it every year.
I refuse to follow in the footsteps of all the commercial madness. I live on a busy country road, and I make sure to put my manger up ever year so everyone that passes by will see it. I’m sure many are not Christian, I’m sure many are not believers; but I know in my heart when they pass by and see the lights reflecting the pond infront, they think about Christmas.
Jesus asked us to be a light for those who live in darkness. There is no better time for christians to reflect Jesus that in the Christmas season. There are so many little ways for us to shine his light. And if someone who does not believe sees Christ in us they may come to believe the truth, Jesus Christ.

Merry Christmas,
tonyg

you are so right. Thank you for the reminder.
Sometimes it just gets discouraging.