Nevermind

Ok, i take it back. I just couldn't bring myself to feel good about starting a blog series whining about commercials. Any way i cut it it's still complaining, and i think if Jesus had a blog He wouldn't spend His time griping about commercials that disrespected him. Of course, he would have needed a blog and a television, or else he wouldn't have any commercials to complain about. Unless he went to a friend's house.

So if you are an executive or a marketing professional, I politely request that you respect the essence of Christmas in your holiday advertising. But beyond that, i don't think there's anything constructive i can say.

Stupid Holliday Commercials

I'm going to try to do this one lovingly, without spite or bitterness, but i think i'm still going to do it. Tis the season of one of my pet peeves - really lame Christmas commercials, and i plan to chronicle this year's crop here. For me, it's the ones that have nothing of Christmas left in them. My favorite from last year: "Happy Honda Days." This year's first installment: "Happy Holi-duh" (Hundai's new favorite word is "duh.")

For some reason i don't mind companies using Christmas to sell their product, as long as they leave some shard of the real thing intact. Something about love, or families, or giving, miracles, anything. Just more than a choir singing "duh duh duh duh duh, duh duh, duh, duh." This is a day that celebrates an event held sacred by about a third of the world's population. Can we show it a little respect, please?

Christmas Giving

I've never read The Five Love Languages, but i've heard enough about them to discover that i am definitely not a gift-giver (or reciever). For me, material posessions feel too frivolous, too hollow, and too expensive to be a genuine expression of affection. If i find the right gift, i enjoy giving it, but giving gifts is someowhat unnatural for me. And so the gift-giving portion of Christmas can be a little difficult sometimes. It's hard to decide how much to spend and how many people to put on the gift list. Most of the time it's fine, and I do have spurts when i'm excited to spoil someone with the perfect present, but sometimes i just don't feel like giving.

However, during one of my lower gifting moods a few days ago, I realized that giving a gift you don't feel like giving is quite possibly more in line with the spirit of Christmas than I thought. Of course, usually we think that true giving is supposed to be enjoyable. Giving gifts out of obligation or to the ungrateful or undeserving is a vice to be avoided. But which kind of gift was Jesus? Certainly one given willingly, but do we know that he was given gladly? It was nearly more than the Father could afford. It was given to the ungrateful, the undeserving, and to people who would never give a comparable gift in return. God could have chosen not to send Jesus, but it seems like an element of obligation was probably present. I'm speculating about things beyond my understanding, but it wouldn't surprise me to discover that Jesus wasn't a fun gift to give.

So maybe when we have to give to people who already have more than they need, who won't be grateful, who won't give in return, who we really don't get along with very well . . . when the gift is more than we want to pay, could it be that those gifts are the ones that reflect the true spirit and meaning of Christmas? I'm not saying that Christmas is a depressing holiday all about obligatory gifts, but that perhaps when you give a gift that isn't fun, you've really tapped in to what it means to give like God gives. That sounds like something to be blessed for.

P. S. Happy Honda Days????

Continuing my thoughts about the emptiness of Christmas, does it shock anyone else that we have carolers singing "We wish you a happy Honda Day" on TV? I suppose this isn't really that bad. Advertisers make a career out of taking something we already have and re-shaping it to serve their product. RRRGh! there it is again!! (the tv is on in another room)

It's just amazing that "holy days" went to "holidays" to "Honda days." We went from sacred, to sentimental, to purely material.

I'm not really trying to get on to Honda. It's not really that bad that they should run a sale over Christmas and call it Honda days. But it just drives me nuts to see something so holy so emptied of its holiness and forced into the service of business.

Christmas without Jesus isn't just bad - it's boring!

One thing i've noticed this christmas season is that there are only so many different ways you can sing "there's no place like home for the holidays" and "jingle bells." I've heard some of these songs over and over again, almost to the point of being sick of them, and a remarkable dearth of the tradititional Christmas carols. Our church's play practice has kept me out of morning worship this month, too, so i haven't even been able to hear them much in Church. I know it sounds like a cliche' but Christmas without Jesus really feels empty. I pulled out some hymnals the other day and just started reading through the Christmas carols. There is some rich theology and beautiful imagery in them that i've really missed.

When we can't talk about Jesus, everyone knows that Christmas is supposed to be special, but it's like there's this huge black hole where the "why" ought to be. Why do we take a whole month to celebrate love and giving? Umm, because we need to sometime? No wonder people are starting to wonder if Christmas is worth all the effort.

The Redemption in Snow

I think every winter i like the cold less and less - maybe i'm just getting old and crabby :) And the less i like cold the more i think about the fact that there probably wasn't winter before there was sin (since they ran around naked). But then eventually i realize that if we never had winter, we'd never have snow. We would have never marvelled about a God so creative and generous to give us trillions of unique snowflakes. We wouldn't have the purity of fresh-fallen snow to remind us of redemption. So even winter seems to be a curse twisted into a blessing.

Maybe the Christmas Season is Supposed to be Stressful

Yesterday, while i was constantly rushing to get things done in time and always feeling 2 steps behind where i needed to be, I realized that the "Christmas Season" has always been stressful, right from its beginning. The very first Christmas was preceded by a very difficult time of preparation: Mary, pregnant for the first time, newly married, probably being judged and gossipped about, having to take a long road trip at an extremely inconvenient time. To top it all off, the trip was to pay taxes, of all things, not for vacation. Imagine Christmas season and tax season rolled into one!

Which all makes me wonder, what if the time leading up to Christmas is actually supposed to be stressful? I'm sure most preachers have preached about how we shouldn't let the busyness of Christmas obscure it's real meaning - our church's play this year is even about that. We really do have this idea that busyness and stress is something that's not supposed to be a part of Christmas, something we managed to add as our culture messed Christmas up.

But what if the greatness of Christmas is such that it is necessarily preceded by struggle? There had to be slavery for there to be an Exodus. There had to be sin for there to be a redemption. Or maybe it's just that Christmas is so wonderful that Satan will always try to make it diffucult for us to get there.

Of course we can overdo it. Of course we can invest ourselves in things that really aren't worth the effort. Of course we can get caught up in meeting other people's expectations, rather than doing those things that are really meaningful.

But maybe, if we're stressed and overwhelmed, it's not necessarily because we're doing it wrong. Maybe it means we're doing it right.