Isn't that interesting, that we have come to associate the birth of Jesus Christ with buying stuff. Think about that for just a moment. Because we usually do not think about it. What connection does marketing or buying stuff have with the birth of Jesus in the manger? I have not found one yet. The high price of straw? My friend Tom felt (get this one) he had to spend more than fifty dollars on each present for each member of his family and extended family. That was good for an expensive total of about eight hundred dollars. What is this shopping thing which has attached itself to the birth of Christ? What does going into debt have to do with our Saviour? Even with our self-created debts, we could never suffer the way He did. I thought Christmas was about the birth of Jesus. In fact, I thought the whole thing was about His birth, and the shopping thing was another matter altogether. (sounds of several cash registers going at about 100 m.p.h.)
In my home, we have cut way back to sending maybe twelve Christmas cards and putting up a small four-foot Christmas tree on a small table in our living room. Lots of little coloured lights on it, absolutely lovely, with little else. Nobody hates us. We have what we call Simple Christmas.
Gotta buy stuff! Get outta my way! Comin' through - !! Hey, move over! (Shove!) And what do you think, trying to steal my parking place? Dumb idiot! Merry Christmas. I'm hungry. So busy buying presents I forgot to eat. Now I have a major stress headache. Merry Christmas. I can't find my car in the mall parking lot. Where are my car keys? I think I left them on the counter when I was changing the baby.
I usually go up into our attic and just sit down with our Christmas stuff on the floor all around me and just look at it, asking myself if we really need all this at Christmastime. I have formed the tradition of halving (cutting it right down the middle) our Christmas things every year, and giving half of them to charity. During the course of the coming of Christmas, we gather more stuff anyway, so it always remains pretty much the same amount: four boxes of decorations.
In closing, I would have you sit down now, before the Christmas thing starts right after Thanksgiving Day, and ask yourself what all this shopping thing is all about. Are you going to spend too much again, and have all those credit card bills (with credit card interest) coming in during January and February - ?