In My Opinion
By L.N.P.

Who Started Christmas?

I received one of my favorite kinds of email today-the kind that makes me say, "Aahhhh, that's what I'll write my column about." This email has probably been around for a while. Some of you must have seen it, but that doesn't matter; it inspired me. It goes something like this:

I heard a story on the radio about a woman who was out Christmas shopping with her two children. After many hours of looking at row after row of toys and everything else imaginable, and after hours of hearing both her children plead for everything in the store, she finally made it to the elevator with her two kids. She was feeling what so many of us feel during the holiday season. Overwhelming pressure to spend money, go to every party, attend every function, buy that perfect gift for every single person on our list, make sure we don't forget to send everyone a card, and the pressure of responding to everyone who sends us one.

Finally the elevator doors opened and there was already a crowd in the car. She pushed her way in, dragging her two whining kids and all the bags of stuff with her. When the doors closed she couldn't take it any more and muttered, "Whoever started this whole Christmas thing should be strung up and shot."

From the back of the car everyone heard a quiet calm voice respond,
"Don't worry, we already crucified him." For the rest of the trip down it was so quiet in the elevator you could have heard a pin drop.

Fortunately for me, I guess, our family made the decision to take a lot of the pressure out of Christmas a few years ago, when a combination of financial reversals and a variety of struggles made it seem obscene to run around spending money we didn't have on things we didn't need and couldn't afford. We decided that the best gift we could give each other was to simply take the pressure off, so we began to enforce the "one gift rule;" each of us would buy the others one meaningful gift, but with a price cap low enough to be challenging. I felt at the time that it changed the focus to being more about the family gathering together and less about the shopping, and I was glad that we were moving in the right direction. It was a good beginning.

Last year around this time I wrote my column about the preceding Christmas, the one I considered the best of all Christmases because it seemed to capture the spirit of the holiday so perfectly. Due to some peculiar timing, we were moving out of our home the day after Christmas, so we had made the painful but practical decision not to put up a tree only to have to take it down again the next day. Our home was somewhat desolate, piled high with boxes (for moving, not gift-giving) and everyone was feeling pretty low. But rather than paraphrasing, I'll just quote from that column:

On Christmas Eve, my daughter and I did a final run with packed cars over to the new house. When we got back home, both of us burst into tears at what we saw. My husband, knowing how much we both longed for something Christmasy to cheer us up, had strung lights all over the living room. He'd pulled out ornaments and decorated our huge ficus tree. Candles were glowing everywhere, and carols were playing on the stereo. It was the most beautiful sight I'd ever seen. And it had all been done in the true spirit of Christmas….a kind and simple gesture of giving, straight from the heart. I doubt we'll ever top last Christmas. But I intend to do my very best to keep that spirit alive.

And when I wrote that, I never actually thought we could top that Christmas. Now I know, that as special as it was, it too was only another step in the right direction. We were half-way there.

This is the Christmas when I believe we'll hit our stride. And there are two compelling reasons for my confidence that I'm glad to share. Both, really, relate to the real meaning of Christmas, that which gets lost somewhere between the lavishly decorated malls and the inebriated partygoers, between Rudolph's shiny nose, Toy R Us, plastic lawn Santas and the endless string of Christmas commercials on TV. This Christmas a child is being born to us. Well, not really to us, but to our son and daughter-in-law. So, a grandchild is being born. And he's coming into the world right before Christmas; it's the most perfect Christmas gift we could imagine.

Perfect, of course, because of who started Christmas. Perfect because of another child who was born and whose birthday we are celebrating. This year we are determined to put Christ back in our Christmas, and that must be why we are feeling great tidings of comfort and joy. And so it no longer seems right that so many of us forget why we gather together. Political correctness has compelled us to remember in private; our public places are reserved for the secular trappings of Christmas. Christ's birthday has been appropriated by everyone, which would be a blessed thing were it not for the fact that many have chosen to use it as an excuse to participate in an orgy of spending, or to gage the economic health of the country, or to produce yet another animated Christmas "special." In other words, Christmas, a religious holiday, can now be interpreted in whatever way people choose. Scenes of his birthplace are no longer allowed; they might be offensive to those who prefer to think of Christmas merely as the time to worship Santa Claus.

But this year, we'll remember that child who was born on the very first Christmas, and why we celebrate his birth.

Thankfully, I may even be able to give a present or two to my loved ones. Gift giving is part of the story after all. It's just that we need to keep in mind the "reason for the season"- why we have the caroling and the gifts and the joy in our hearts. So this year, I know that when I find myself placing the angel on top of the tree, or sitting on the floor unwrapping a present, or gathering around the dining room table for dinner with my family, I will do it ALL in honor of ONE………….the one who started Christmas.

Send me your opinions at LParis@netlistings.com