Christmas
The Commercialization of Christmas One of the most surprising facts about our family for most people was that we did not (and still don't) celebrate Christmas by gift giving or otherwise celebrating, other than the fact that we sometimes had a special dinner or watched a movie about the Nativity story in the evening. We used to get together shortly before Christmas to take our family photos which we would send out to people in our Christmas cards for that year. Getting all those people together was quite a process! For several years, we did "themed" Christmas pictures; one year we all dressed as Indians and cowboys. The year before that, we were all shepherds.
NOT celebrating Christmas was something we decided to do, due to the self-centered-ness of the holiday and also because of the way it has become so very much commercialized. The focus has become less and less about Christmas, and more and more about "I want". And certainly, the current celebration of the holiday has almost nothing to do with Christ, the Savior, except for hearing His name in passing. Setting aside a day for celebrating and exchanging presents is definitely something that we agreed with, but we did not feel that was how we wanted to convey the meaning of the Christmas story. And so, we had to decide on a different day for gifts and fun. And that is how our family started celebrating, not Christmas, but Purim. We do enjoy the peace and quiet that Christmas Day brings, but what a lot of hustle and bustle people go through to get there! |