Like many of you, I’ll be traveling this week. I'll be on my way to Charlotte, NC, leaving late Sunday afternoon returning Friday night. I’ll be visiting my Aunt Doris and Uncle Leo who live with their son, Peter and his wife, Paula. This is the third year I’ve made this trip. It’s a nice break and it gives me a chance to spend time with folks I don’t see that often. I hope your travel and mine will be safe and peaceful.When I return at the end of the week, we’ll be ready to celebrate the First Sunday of Advent! At this point, my fervent hope and prayer is that I might find some quiet, some simplicity, some peaceful moments in the days between November 30 and December 25. And my hopes and prayer for you are the same! Perhaps the stressed economy will have the salutary effect of giving us some perspective on how we celebrate the birth of a poor Child whose generous and rich spiritual gifts to us can be so easily lost in the craziness of “the holidays.”
The ways in which preachers address this concern are well known and may seem trite or too clichéd to even mention. But something must be said each year to remind us all that it’s not our birthday we’re celebrating – it’s the birthday of Christ. It’s not a day for making everyone’s wish-list come true – it’s a day for remembering that in Christ, our greatest needs are supplied and our greatest hopes are fulfilled in the promise and gift of life he came to bring us.
I can’t begin to imagine how difficult it is for parents to share this message with their children in a holiday culture so permeated with consumerism and the notion that Christmas is a time to get things for ourselves. And more often than not, these are things we don't really need: they're things we want them or think we need. More than anything, Christmas is about giving away, giving of ourselves, a season of greater generosity. The ones we should care for the most are likely folks whose names we don't even know, those people whose names are supplied to us by third parties who are privy to the needs of folks who are strangers to us.
Imagine what a generous response to the needs of the poor there would be if all of us added up: the cost of Christmas cards and postage; the price of Christmas trees and decorations; and the expense of Christmas gift wrapping material - and gave the equivalent total to a charitable purpose. (Note that my list there did not include the actual gifts we buy for family and close friends and colleagues at work. Maybe we should think of adding up the cost of all the gifts we give and then tithing (giving 10% of that amount) to charity. What a great step this would be towards the manger in a stable and sharing the message of the newborn Child whom we honor in his humble home.
In these days before Advent, will we take the time to sit down (perhaps with others in the household or workplace) and ask some questions about how we celebrate Christ’s birthday and ask, “Since it’s Christ’s birthday, what might be on his wish list for December 25th?”
P.S. It's the cost of the wrapping paper, ribbons, tags and "gift ornaments" that's really getting to me this year as I think of Christmas giving. Imagine if the gifts under the tree were all "brown paper packages tied up with string..."
Image above by SeattlePi
-ConcordPastor
With the multiple gifts you receive at Christmas from people from the parish, old friends, new friends, and current friends - if you recycled all those in gift bags with bows or ribbons - you'd never have to buy another gift bag again for as long as you lived!
ReplyDeleteConcord Pastor, Nice post!
ReplyDeleteI'm a huge fan of brown paper wrapping.
Many years ago Paul O'Brien mentioned something similar in one of his homilies.
It got me to take a closer look at my income / expenses and then budget 10% of income for church / charity.
I'm glad I did. I think its a great idea considering that if some people really took the time to look at what they spend their money on . . . they'd be surprised. It can get a bit crazy!
I've used newspaper as well as brown bags. Learned to do that from Martha Stewart. If you're creative, draw on the brown wrapping. Newspaper...the sports section for the sports enthusiast, the arts section for movie lovers etc.
ReplyDeleteAnne
Good point about recycling! The only problem is that it perpetuates the gift-giving! I'm not the Grinch or Scrooge - honest! - but we so often and so easily go over the top at this time of year...
ReplyDeleteSome families draw names. You only buy one gift. Others only buy for the children in the family. Unfortunately, my family hasn't taken this approach. Each year I get more exasperated with the running around to buy, wrapping, boxing to send out of town, etc., and yet it continues. I do buy cards and wrapping paper, ribbon, etc. at the end of each season (1/2 price sales.) And although I haven't calculated the percent of overall purchases, I do contribute to charitable causes at this time of year.
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile, CP, have a warm wonderful time with your family in North Carolina.
And whatever you do don't do what someone did to me one year. In addition to a lovely Christmas gift, I was regifted with candied grapefruit peel!
We do a "yankee" grab at our house and only buy for the children too.
ReplyDeleteThe older children organize and collent donations for the Heifer International which feeds the poor. Each year the kids try to outdo themselves.
Last year we bought a familt a cow.
Check it out: http://www.heifer.org/
A family I know has, since their two sons were old enought to understand, operated under this rule: "Since Jesus received only three gifts at his birth (gold, frankincense, myrrh)no one in our house receives more gifts than he did."
ReplyDeleteI've never been much of a holiday person - too much commercialism and hype! We limit gift-giving to a minimum---drawing one name out of a hat and limiting the amount to $20-25.00. One year we were all broke, so we had to create gifts that were "service gifts" to the person whose name we drew. (i.e. as a person who sews, I wrapped up a plastic bag with instructions that I would sew all articles of clothing that needed sewing that she could put in the bag! The person who pulled my name gave me free babysitting coupons) It was the BEST Christmas ever!!
ReplyDeleteI think that anything that emphasizes Advent and Christmas and in an appropriate way de-emphasizes over the top gift buying and giving is a good thing.
ReplyDeleteDue to my unemployed state, our Christmas will be more subdued in that way... but if our preparations for Advent are any indication, I am pleased with how my 12 year old is dealing with this so far.
I wish our family at large would go with the draw-one-name-give-to-the-kids scenario, but that has yet to happen. Deep sigh.
Have a great trip and thanks for this thoughtful post. And for some creative ways to use brown paper packages - there is something to that.
Fran
That's a great one!
ReplyDeleteOver the years I've accumulated a lot of ends of rolls of wrapping paper, odd tags, ribbon that I keep forgetting I already have and have bought again, and so on. Despite that backlog, every year I am seduced by paper in the store -- be it CVS, Shaws, or Copley Flair (oh, the paper at Copley Flair!).
ReplyDeleteThis year, both in response to the economy and also to help in my recovery from hoarding, I have pledged to use only old wrappings I already have. Friday, as part of the prep for letting the gas company into the basement to install a new meter, I will haul up all the boxes and bags of Christmas paper stored down there and start to go through them.
I doubt any of the recipients of the gifts I give will realize I've dialed back, but I will. :-)
Vintage gift wrap! It will soon be the latest thing, Piskie, and you'll have celebrity status!
ReplyDeleteI can't remember where I read this, and I don't have children, but I thought this was a great idea: if you are traveling a good distance this Christmas and have children, and would like some more ways to keep them occupied... wrap the gifts you are bringing with you in plain white or brown paper and bring markers, crayons, stickers, etc. and let the kids decorate the packages along the way. By the time you reach your destination, you will have beautiful, original wrapped packages. (better yet, have the kids- and you- handmake at least some of those gifts) I think it would also be a great conversation starter for the trip and for when you arrive.
ReplyDelete