Keeping Christ in Christmas 2007

[Beautiful]

The stores are stockpiling inventories for Christmas 2007. I’ve heard Christmas/holiday music piped through the stores. The decorations are already out in many places and rich holiday foods such as Christmas cookies and candies are plentiful on the grocery store shelves. Advertisement circulars suggest gift shopping should start early. Along with all this are speculations and plans for various family gatherings.

I’m sorry to say that I’m already very tired of all the confusion. I’m already tired and no one is even looking too closely at me yet. My mind and body simply want to retreat alone and move in and through the Advent and Christmas season without the usual pressures of gifting, decorating, baking, cooking and glossy office holiday parties and familial pressures.

My heart is tenaciously holding to the hope I’ve always had in the meaning of Christmas. I long to reflect in my heart the unspeakable love and simplicity of the Nativity which at this moment seems so far removed from the commercialism and expectations that the media and even family and friends are already pressing upon me.

In recent years I liked to think that I claimed some of the real beauty and understanding of Jesus Christ becoming man but when I reflect as a new advent season begins I realize my meager progress over time. Each year I resolve to make Advent and Christmas a pray filled and holy time but the results are with little gain.

While it is true that the Incarnate Word had come to meet me in the depths of my human nature, how might I best respond to the hubbub of the secular/holiday season without destroying myself and those who perhaps look to me for inspiration and love during this time?

We are fragile beings that for the most part require many fewer calories and material goods than the season usually offers. Am I denying my fragility by anesthetizing myself with food, drink, talking, glitz, gifts and materialism? Or am I denying my fragility by planning a more ascetic Advent and Christmas season?

I want to be more exposed and sensitive to the suffering of others. It is impossible to face a full dining room table and know there are others starving in the world. Starvation abounds especially at rich loveless tables. I wonder who is really starving. I want my table to be rich in love and not a glut of selfish materialism. How much more I want to love and not starve. I want to live.

What more can be done to keep Christ in Christmas? What are your thoughts?
What works for you?
Please share your loving ways.

 

[MSParrott]

I know exactly what you mean. The holidays have become such a stressful time for many - but IMHO, it’s because people (myself included at times) lose sight of what it actually is - the celebration of the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus.

I wish we could just forgo the gift-giving and just use this as a time to reflect on how blessed we are that God gave us the best gift of his Son. In a perfect world, it should be families and friends getting together to celebrate the ultimate gift we have been given - not obsessing over how much to spend on gifts per person, and getting so caught up in the commercialism it has come to be.

Also, it irritates me to no end how PC everything has become - people saying Happy Holidays for fear of offending someone and the absolute WORST for me is when cards or stores use the term X-mas. It’s NOT x-mas, it’s CHRISTmas! I wish things were how they were back when my parents were growing up - it seems like such a more simpler time, in this respect, at least…

This year I hope to keep Christ in Christmas not only during this season, but in every day - by being more charitable to others, and really thanking God for all He has given me. And hopefully making a more concerted effort to truly live as He wants me to.

 

[bpbasilphx]

Consider that in the Byzantine tradition, there is a fast of 40 days, beginning on 15 November. Not even fish is allowed, except on weekends, 21 November (Entrance of the Theotokos) and 6 December (St. Nicholas), and meat, eggs, and dairy products are totally out. So are alcoholic drinks except on weekends… (In the USA there is a general exception for Thanksgiving day, provided one attends Divine Liturgy on that day.)

Needless to say, there are no parties or similar events. If work or school make such attendance necessary, one only goes for the shortest possible time, and partakes sparingly of the refreshments.

 

[Beautiful]

I know exactly what you mean. The holidays have become such a stressful time for many - but IMHO, it’s because people (myself included at times) lose sight of what it actually is - the celebration of the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus.

You know it.

Also, it irritates me to no end how PC everything has become - people saying Happy Holidays for fear of offending someone and the absolute WORST for me is when cards or stores use the term X-mas. It’s NOT x-mas, it’s CHRISTmas! I wish things were how they were back when my parents were growing up - it seems like such a more simpler time, in this respect, at least…

The terms x-mas and holidays are real detractions.

This year I hope to keep Christ in Christmas not only during this season, but in every day - by being more charitable to others, and really thanking God for all He has given me. And hopefully making a more concerted effort to truly live as He wants me to.

Planned prayer each day helps to make loving a daily thing and not a once a year thing.
In the past I have purchased special Advent prayer guides. This year I choose not to. I’m hoping that my regular monthly Magnificat will help me. Magnificat offers a special Advent supplement but I chose not to get it. I want to keep even my prayer time simplified. Regular daily readings, prayers and reflections should be enough food.

 

[Beautiful]

Consider that in the Byzantine tradition, there is a fast of 40 days, beginning on 15 November. Not even fish is allowed, except on weekends, 21 November

It seems that the ascetic aspect of Advent is lacking these days. This is easy to have happen in light of the pressures to pack in all sorts of events leading up to Christmas season. Christmas is rather anti-climatic without the asceticism of Advent.

 

[St_Gabriel]

The stores are stockpiling inventories for Christmas 2007. I’ve heard Christmas/holiday music piped through the stores. The decorations are already out in many places and rich holiday foods such as Christmas cookies and candies are plentiful on the grocery store shelves. Advertisement circulars suggest gift shopping should start early. Along with all this are speculations and plans for various family gatherings.

I’m sorry to say that I’m already very tired of all the confusion. I’m already tired and no one is even looking too closely at me yet. My mind and body simply want to retreat alone and move in and through the Advent and Christmas season without the usual pressures of gifting, decorating, baking, cooking and glossy office holiday parties and familial pressures.

My heart is tenaciously holding to the hope I’ve always had in the meaning of Christmas. I long to reflect in my heart the unspeakable love and simplicity of the Nativity which at this moment seems so far removed from the commercialism and expectations that the media and even family and friends are already pressing upon me.

In recent years I liked to think that I claimed some of the real beauty and understanding of Jesus Christ becoming man but when I reflect as a new advent season begins I realize my meager progress over time. Each year I resolve to make Advent and Christmas a pray filled and holy time but the results are with little gain.

While it is true that the Incarnate Word had come to meet me in the depths of my human nature, how might I best respond to the hubbub of the secular/holiday season without destroying myself and those who perhaps look to me for inspiration and love during this time?

We are fragile beings that for the most part require many fewer calories and material goods than the season usually offers. Am I denying my fragility by anesthetizing myself with food, drink, talking, glitz, gifts and materialism? Or am I denying my fragility by planning a more ascetic Advent and Christmas season?

I want to be more exposed and sensitive to the suffering of others. It is impossible to face a full dining room table and know there are others starving in the world. Starvation abounds especially at rich loveless tables. I wonder who is really starving. I want my table to be rich in love and not a glut of selfish materialism. How much more I want to love and not starve. I want to live.

What more can be done to keep Christ in Christmas? What are your thoughts?
What works for you?
Please share your loving ways.

Have you tried to volunteer at a soup kitchen during the days that lead up to Christmas? Even if it is for just a day.

 

[Beautiful]

Have you tried to volunteer at a soup kitchen during the days that lead up to Christmas? Even if it is for just a day.

The nearest soup kitchen is quite a distance from my home.
I have often what it would take to start one in my area. It would be a first. There are emergency food pantries but no soup kitchens.

 

[Dempsey1919]

Christmas has lost its meaning in secular society. People think more about Santa Claus than they do about Jesus.

In my area, most people don’t celebrate Christmas with the same enthusiasm and it has led me to think that Christmas will not really be celebrated in 50 years; I think that it will become more like Easter and Halloween.

I love Christmas. For me, it is a time of thanksgiving as we celebrate the fact that God became human in order to redeem fallen mankind. We are truly celebrating the greatest event in the history of the world!

In an effort to put the meaning back into Christmas, I have displayed a Nativity scene in my home for the past few years. This year, I will also be attending Mass on Christmas Eve for the first time in over a decade! I’m really looking forward to that.

The problem with Christmas is that gift giving has become too much of a burden for people, especially parents. The emphasis on buying gifts have taken the joy out of Christmas for many people. I hope that people come to realise that Christmas isn’t about giving gifts; it’s about giving thanks to God for the gift of salvation that he gave mankind.

 

[Beautiful]

Thanks Dempsey1919 :bowdown2:
My home nativity says so much each year. I really hate to take it down after Christmas.

Christmas has lost its meaning in secular society. People think more about Santa Claus than they do about Jesus.

I was out most of the morning with my daughter shopping around for some necessities including a nativity set for her first apartment. It was difficult in some stores and impossible in others to even find a nativity! The largest selection in one store was from 3 sets. But there was a whole aisle of hundreds of different gift bags to choose from. The beauty of the nativities seemed so crowded by red things, green things, shimmering silky stuff, bells, stockings, senseless looking ornaments, reindeers, elves and of course Santa Claus of many sizes. We gave up and decided to shop online.