Was this Christmas everything you hoped it would be?

In recent years, so much ink and so many pixels and so many raised voices have been devoted to the issue of putting the “Christ” back in Christmas…to helping to remind us of the “Reason for the season.” While I don’t think these efforts are misguided – I just wonder sometimes how effective they have been.

Before someone starts to call me “Scrooge,” let me explain. If we haven’t spent the first eleven months of the year seeking to have the “Christ” in us, we won’t be successful in December convincing others to put the “Christ” in Christmas. It is like the contradiction between the bumper sticker, “Jesus love you, and so I”…and getting into an argument over a parking space at the mall.

Put another way, have we sung “Joy to the World” in church, but also brought bad tidings of great disdain/impatience to other people? It is ironic that the day that was first set aside as a birthday party for a King is increasingly overwhelmed by finding “the perfect gift” for the guests of the party.

Or do we really think that a “Hatchimal” is at the top of Jesus’ birthday wish list?

Growing up, the idea of Christmas morning without the sight of an overflowing stack of gifts under the tree was “unthinkable” to me. I’m sure that was the case in many homes. Over the course of time, that expectation was something that we grew out of, as the relationship between work and the cost of things became clear. Indeed, once I discovered that Santa’s “handwriting” and my Mom’s looked exactly the same, everything changed.

At the risk of sounding like “that old guy,” it seems like that sentiment isn’t something that folks are growing out of these days. Encouraged to continue pursuing our “toys,” we are led by proverbial Pied Pipers toward the cash registers, online shopping carts, and increasing debt loads. A far cry from the inn, the manger, and a Gift that was both temporal and eternal at the same time. (Literally, the Gift that keeps on giving.)

Now, Christmas 2016 looms large in our rear-view mirror, so to speak. As we recycle all the wrapping paper and begin to “recover” from the holiday season in the next couple of weeks, it would be good for us to also reflect on what we can learn – and what we may want to do differently in the New Year. Not so much a resolution, but rather a commitment to bring daily joy into our world…not just in December, but throughout the year.

In other words, to remember that the “Reason for the season” is also our Reason for joy every day of the year.

So what brought you joy this Christmas season? Share your comments below or on Facebook.