Day: December 19, 2016

When I think of Christmas, I think of Christ giving us the greatest gift of all. Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins. I believe this 120 percent. For a number of years, my family has been celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ at Easter time.

A Little Christmas FYI;

• Fact 1. When you read the Bible, you will find that there is no mention of how Jesus Christ was born on December 25th. Most historians believe that He was born in the spring time, which would be closer to Easter.
• Fact 2. For the first 300 years, there really wasn’t much importance given to birthdays and not even Jesus Christs. When a person died most considered it more important because it was a time they entered the kingdom of Heaven. Even the baptism of Christ drew more attention than the birth of Christ.
• Fact 3. Christmas has become the most commercialized holiday. Toys, candies, candles and ornaments was officially ready to buy. found ready markets. Greenhouse-grown poinsettia were sold as early as 1830, but in the 1870s, New York shops began selling them as Christmas specialties.

At Easter time, we put up our tree and that’s when we exchange gifts. It is the perfect time to remember that Jesus Christ came to us as a baby. He died on the cross so we can live forever. Doing our Christmas at Easter has provided a variety of opportunities to tell the complete story of Christ.

There are no Santa’s, bunnies or Easter Eggs. You won’t find a Santa or Easter bunny in my house at all. Our family didn’t always celebrate the birth, death and the Resurrection on Easter Sunday. When we moved our Christmas to Easter, it made the day special. I know Easter is  my all time favorite holidays. These are the only two holidays that are dedicated to Christ. All the rest can get kicked to the curb in my opinion.

Since my daughters got married and became parents, life was getting busy fast. It broke my heart to see my daughters struggle when it came to giving gifts for their children and for their spouses. They were spending money that they didn’t have.Each year, they would split their time. They would eat at one home and then they would come to our house. They felt like they had to do it this way or we would be mad at them. I wasn’t mad at them and since I have no problem celebrating holidays on different days, we could move the day.

Most years they were also very low on money since they had to get food, gifts and so on for each person. By the time January came around, they were broke and struggling to pay their utility bills. I would prefer to get nothing at all over getting gifts that I didn’t need. Paying rent, utilities and for food are more important than anything else.

I hate to burst anyone’s bubbles, but Christmas is NOT about going broke when buying gifts that you can’t afford..It’s as if parents and other people will go for broke in order to buy the biggest and coolest gifts of all. I can’t imagine buying gifts a person can’t afford or doesn’t want to buy would please Jesus at all.

My husband has always been the kind of person who hated Christmas. Not because of the fact that we are celebrating the birth of Christ. It’s because of the money, gift giving, greed and so on. Over the years, I came around to his way of thinking on some things. Commercialism is one of those things that I also have big issues with.

Instead of the grand-kids opening presents up and throwing them aside, they will take the time to open and show the others what they received. They only get three gifts each and they are carefully selected.  I was extremely frustrated over the kids being ungrateful for the past couple of years. When our daughter were younger they would get so many gifts, they had no clue who gave them what. Some gifts got lost in the shuffle and were thrown away. Our grand-kids are the same way. I am sure most kids are.

I felt really bad for my sister Joyce. She went out of her way to buy nice gifts for all of the kids. My sister has no children of her own and yet she made it a point to give gifts to all of the kids. When the kids asked how they liked their gifts, the answer was always, “yeah, that’s cool”. Then the gifts were tossed aside. They did this no matter who gave them the gift.  I felt bad for Joyce and I hope this year all of the kids are grateful and say thank you. I sound like I am picking on my grand-kids. If I am, I don’t mean to. I am using them as examples on how Christmas has become the “me” holiday instead of the “He” holiday.

In a couple of months I will be done shopping for gifts. This year gifts will be given that will promote togetherness. I think the only grand-kid that won’t toss the gifts aside is Josalyn. Since she won’t be one till May, she will probably enjoy the wrapping paper most of all, lol. My husband and I both have our son in-laws. I have one and he has the other. Neither one of them will get anything computer or game wise.  A couple of my grand-kids have asked for games for the Wii or another game console. I told my daughters that will NOT happen. .

I was talking to one of my grandsons last week about how his classes are going. He hates school because he can’t play the games he has on his game console. People don’t talk anymore. So, when I give gifts this year, they will be about togetherness and about Christ. I’m pretty sure that they will toss them aside when they get home because it isn’t something that can be played on a computer or with people online that they don’t know. I can’t do anything about that though.

The true spirit of Christmas has been lost and I prayed about what it was that I needed to do in order to retain a sense of being grateful and at the same time honoring Jesus Christ. It seems as if Jesus has been missing from Christmas.

My prayers for you all are that you have a very merry Jesus filled Christmas.