The ‘spirit’ of Christmas.

Christmas, the time where we fish out the phrase ‘peace on earth and goodwill to men’ from under the piles of stuff, and wipe the dust off it for another year. Looking around the Christmas rush, it really doesn’t seem very peaceful, and as people stress about what presents to get, I doubt there is much goodwill on their minds.

Why is it that we wait for once a year to try and think about other people, try and be kind and the whole peace and goodwill stuff? Shouldn’t followers of Jesus be practising this all year round? Why do people make excuses that nice things should be done in the 'spirit' of Christmas? Are people so selfish that they think about themselves the other 364 days of the year? I guess at least there is a day (or a brief season in the year) where people think about doing 'nice things' or at least being 'nice'.

I have decided not to have any “traditions”. I don’t send Christmas cards, don’t always give presents (except to immediate family) or things like that which are the norm. To be honest the main reason is because I procrastinate, so I never have any cards written and posted in time, or go shopping in time to beat the rush. And if I start doing that, then people expect me to do that every year and I can’t maintain a practice for very long. My ‘nice’ justification is: people expect cards and presents at Christmas. Won’t it be nice to surprise them with a card and/or a gift on a random day during the year? (OK. I haven’t put this in practice yet! But I like the theory behind it – after all God’s grace is an unexpected gift.)

Anyway, enough ranting. Joe has some great posts about Christmas which sound less cynical than mine.