Last night, my wife and I curled up in our cozy warm place and watched the new Christmas movie starring Reba McEntire and John Schneider. Titled Christmas in Tune, one of its major themes, as with almost all Christmas movies, is "there's something special about Christmas." As one might expect, there was a lot of talk about Christmas "magic."
Now, we liked the movie. It was funny, sentimental, and, of course, featured some beautiful singing. However, I can't recall a single mention of Jesus Christ throughout the hour-and-a-half production.
This is the time of year when Christians all across America rush here and there, from shopping center to shopping center, getting stuck in traffic, celebrating love, life, and friendship with the people they adore and repeat until after the New Year that someone should "put Christ back into Christmas." I've been hearing it my whole life, and I'm nearly 60 years old.
Question: If we all recognize that Christ has been removed from Christmas, then why hasn't someone reinserted him by now?
What Happened to Christmas?
I have a confession to make: I'm not a big fan of the Christmas season. What befuddles my mind is that so many people become the nicest person in the world right after Thanksgiving but remain unbearable for the rest of the year. Do fir trees and mistletoe really bring out the best in people, or is there something else going on?
My father, for as long as I can remember, has reminded my family on more than several occasions, that Christmas has been overly commercialized. I used to think, well, we do live in a society that values money and free enterprise. Naturally, commercialization should follow. Shouldn't it?
You'll be hard pressed to find a Christian in the United States who won't defend free enterprise capitalism. But we'd still like to find Christ and put him back into Christmas. Has it ever occurred to you that maybe the reason Christ has left Christmas is because of the crass commercialism, and not in spite of it?
I'm going to go ahead and make a bold statement: No one took Christ out of Christmas; Christ removed himself from Christmas because it just doesn't represent who he is.
Once that truth has been realized en masse, I think we'll see more of Christ in our favorite holiday season. But if you're looking for more practical suggestions, here are a handful of ways I think all of us can put more of Christ into our Christmas, this year and every year.
5 Ways to Put Christ Into Christmas
While writing this post, I decided to Google "How to put Christ back into Christmas" to see what others might have to say about the subject. There were several dozen attempts to nail that discussion to the cross, but most of the suggestions were rather bland. They included things like:
Buy an advent calendar
Throw a birthday party for Jesus (with cake and ice cream even!)
Invite your friends to church (one church blog made sure to mention making it their church)
Go Christmas caroling (with several bloggers suggesting to do so at a nursing home)
Send Christmas cards to friends and family
Set up a Nativity scene in your yard or home
Take some time out for a devotional
Volunteer at a soup kitchen or to help the homeless
Attend a Christian prayer service
And more!
Of course, none of these suggestions are bad in and of themselves, but if we all did only half of these, we'd still come out of this Christmas season wondering why Christ didn't show up. In short, it's more of the same. After all, don't we do these things every year?
I particularly like the suggestion to volunteer to help others. It doesn't need to be at a soup kitchen nor does the target demographic need to be the homeless. You can help someone in your neighborhood. But that's just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to putting Christ into Christmas. After all, it nears the heart of being Christlike, which, in my opinion, is the best way to put Christ back into Christmas.
On that note, I'd like to offer these 5 practical ways to ensure Christ never backs out of Christmas again:
Teach your children that living a good Christian life, at Christmastime or any other time of year, is about giving, not getting. In other words, instead of getting all excited about receiving gifts, why not get excited about giving them? After all, it is more blessed to give than to receive.
Instead of buying a boatload of gifts for family and friends, thereby furthering the "commercialization" of Christmas, why not make something for them instead? Call it giving from the heart. If you're a painter, paint a portrait of someone and give it to them as a gift. If you're a poet, write a poem. If you're a quilter, make a quilt. Woodworker? Make a wooden bench, or a porch swing. Whatever your craft talent is, exercise it for others and give a piece of yourself rather than something made in China. And if you think you have no such talent, think again. This gift could be something as simple as baking a pie, singing a favorite song together (experiences count!), or trimming that tree you promised to trim three years ago.
Get a small group of friends together and enjoy each other's company. Don't pass out gifts. Just sit and talk. Get to know each other on a deeper level. Play a game together. Maybe enjoy a meal and a few drinks. But whatever activities you plan for such a gathering, make sure those activities are not the central focus of your get together. Enjoying each other's company should be the focus.
Make Christmas just another day of the year. Christianity Today has a wonderful article about the history of our Christian traditions, particularly the cultural ones. In the spirit of Romans 14:5, don't be afraid to go against the grain. Don't make it a point of contention, but one sure way to make Christmas more Christlike is to opt out of cultural celebrations that put more emphasis on Santa, decorations, and happiness than on Jesus himself. Of course, you can see God's goodness in those things, too. Whether you celebrate Christmas as a special time of year, or not, the best thing you can do for yourself and others is to be the Christ you want to see in Christmas.
Celebrate the birth, life, and death of Jesus all year. If you are a Christmas and Easter Christian, realize that Jesus is still present with you all year long. He sees you when you're sleeping and he sees you when you're awake. He knows when you're bad or good, so worship Jesus, for goodness sake! Worship him all year long. And if you do that, you'll find yourself full of cheer in every season rather than just a few weeks at the end of the year.
Well, that's the best of I've got. If you're one of those Christians who lament the loss of Christ in Christmas, maybe you should be the one to put him back on the throne where he belongs. And if you choose to do so, share that decision, along with the experience, with others.
Christ hasn't left Christmas. Our culture has left Christ. The only way that will change is if each of us changes it at the personal level, one individual, one household, and one village at a time.
Allen Taylor is the author of I Am Not the King.
