Christmas is Messed Up

For some reason this year I've been looking at the things we do for Christmas a lot differently. I think Christmas is pretty messed up.

Sure it's a holiday to celebrate the birth of Jesus, but he wasn't even born on the 25th of December. Heck, he probably wasn't even born in December at all. The Nativity Story is beautiful but the wisemen most likely didn't visit Jesus right after he was born, I've reports saying it might have been months or years later. Really?

Then we have all these ridiculous sayings that people get bent out of shape about. "Jesus is the Reason for the Season" or "Jesus is The Gift" or "Keep Christ in Christmas". I know most people using these sayings have good intentions, but I have a hard time thinking of Jesus walking around Palestine as a 20 year old and saying "I'm the Gift" or "I'm the reason for the season". Better yet, do you think people said "Merry Christmas" to Jesus for his birthday? Or do you think Jesus said, "Keep ME in my birthday"?

I haven't even gotten started with the notion of the Christmas Tree. A tree that was alive and now is dying or dead in your living room. Better yet, get a fake tree and put it up for 30 days and hang decorations on it. It's odd, but enjoyable, I know.

Other things that strike me as odd are things like hanging lights on your house when you should have ample lighting outside of your house already. Why do you need more? And why those annoying little blue LED lights? You know the ones that make your eyes hurt when you look at them?

Or what about visiting a man your kids don't know and telling them it's ok to sit on his knee... alone... AND have him whisper things in their ear?

Then we have this build up for one day of the year. Besides Western Culture, the rest of the world keeps moving on Christmas Day. The 25th of December for them is just that, the 25th of December. It's no different than any other 25th day of any month, but for us Westerner's it's a big deal. And for what? Fights over dead trees or turkeys? Families putting on pretty smiles between snide remarks and photo ops?

I'm looking at Christmas differently. It's extravagance, it's wonder and it's craziness. I'm just sharing my thoughts openly. No need to blast me for what you think it is or isn't. I'm just hoping you might look at how silly it really is. I'm not asking anything of you or making some plea to give more and do with less. Instead, just look at what we're doing. Is it that big of a deal? Or are we building it up to be more than it really is? I don't know, but I'm ok with questioning it.

Some videos that make me smile: