One of the things we like to do at our house during the Christmas season is watch Christmas movies. The other day we watched “Four Christmases” with Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon. For those who haven’t seen it (and this is by no means a recommendation) it follows the two main characters who have dated for years but are intent on staying unmarried and not having children. They normally blow-off spending Christmas with family by lying to them that they are off somewhere doing humanitarian work. While being interviewed on TV waiting in line at the airport, their families see that they are stranded and are forced to spend Christmas at four different places since both parents are divorced—hence their reluctance to become married. What ensues over the course of the day is at times hysterical, sad, poignant, and uncomfortable. There are moments when the cringe factor was pretty high for me because it reminded me of the holidays with my own family growing up.
It also reminded me of the fact that Christmas can be an amazing time for family to share love and togetherness, but it can also be a time of stress and dread. There are many reasons for this. Maybe there is relational pain or family dysfunction as was the case in the movie I mentioned. Maybe the holidays are painful reminders of what is missing in our lives. Maybe the financial stress of buying gifts makes Christmas something to be avoided instead of celebrated. Whatever the reason, if we keep our eyes on Jesus and remember that we are celebrating His birth—and life—we can realign our focus to have Christmas be honoring to Christ—and each other.
There have been many times when the thought of buying Christmas gifts brought more pain than pleasure. When you have to borrow to buy gifts, it doesn’t give you that warm fuzzy feeling. What we did at our house during tough financial times was we drew names and made that person something. The idea wasn’t to make something awesome (or expensive), but to show that person how much you loved them. We also had purchased gifts, but doing that one little thing helped us to focus on relationships more than merchandise.
It would be great to hear other ideas of what you do to honor Christ at Christmas, or cultivate family closeness. What do you do in your family to make Christmas something you look forward to? What are some things you do to show the love of Jesus, particularly during this time of year?
