Ignoring Christmas, are you kidding? How would that be possible? The stores started assembling their elaborate Christmas displays in mid-October well before Halloween. It is a tradition in my family to wait until the day after thanksgiving to get all the decorations down and the tree up. Some wise people have been purchasing gifts all year long in anticipation of Christmas morning. Then there are those Christmas parties and the anticipation of spending the holidays with family and friends. With all this activity it is impossible to ignore Christmas.
Maybe that is exactly the problem. We are so busy getting ready for Christmas and cleaning up after Christmas that the true significance of Christmas can be ignored or missed entirely. Perhaps we need to learn the lesson that Dr. Seuss writes about in the Christmas classic, "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas."
And the Grinch, with his grinch-feet ice-cold in the snow,
Stood puzzling and puzzling: "How could it be so?
It came without ribbons! It came without tags!
"It came without packages, boxes or bags!"
And he puzzled three hours, `till his puzzler was sore.
Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before!
"Maybe Christmas," he thought, "doesn't come from a store.
"Maybe Christmas...perhaps...means a little bit more!"
Christ is what Christmas is about. The more we ignore that the greater chance that we will miss Christmas. The more we recognize Christ and His gift of eternal life the more Christmas will mean to us. Though I love the tinsel and decorations, the family and friends gatherings, the opportunity to show my love to my loved ones by giving a small token gift, and the small traditions that make this such a blessed time of year, I fully realize that Christmas in it's true significance, can be experienced without any of those things. Christmas is about Immanuel, God with us. So really everyday ought to be Christmas in the believer's heart. May you have a great Christmas season, and may you have the joy of having Christ within you all the days of this new year!!
Santa Claus has become the main symbol of Christmas and in many minds has become a larger figure than Jesus Himself. It is amazing how the fantisy has replaced the reality. The origin of the mythical figure that has risen to great prominance in our Christmas traditions was a noble one. St. Nicholas was a real person born to a wealthy family in Lycia, Asia Minor (Turkey) between 270 and 280 AD. He lost his parents at an early age and grew up in a monastery becoming one of the youngest priests ever at the age of 17.
Nicholas was a bery generous man, known for his charity and wisdom, who gve away his inherited wealth to those in need. One
of the most widely shared stories is how he helped a poor family with three
daughters. The family had no money and
could not provide a dowry for the girls to be married. Therefore, the girls
would be sold into slavery. Nicholas
learned about this. One night after the family was asleep; he rode by the house
on his horse disguised in a hood cloak, and tossed a bag of gold through the window. He did this three consecutive nights to provide for each of the three
daughters.
He died on December 6, 340 and was buried in Myra. In 1087 religious soldiers from Italy took the remains of St. Nicholas back to Bari, Italy where they built a church in honor of him - the Basilica of San Nicola. This greatly increased his popularity in Europe, with pilgrims from all over the world coming to to visit his shrine. Each of them took his legend back to their native countries where, as his fame spread it took on the characteristics of each country. One thing common to all however, the traditional image of the Bishop's mitre, long flowing robes, red cape, and white beard.
My daughter has a collection of ceramic pieces that help remind us the St. Nicholas was a believer in Jesus and he lived his life trying to follow His Lord and Savior.
