I'm not terribly concerned about Christmas commercialism (for myself personally, as a Christian).
To take a break from paper writing yesterday, Josh and I ran out to Big Lots to buy some cheap decorations (my little gold ribbon tree!), wrapping paper, and the like. I had planned to not go out on Black Friday, but it was 5pm and I needed a break, and the craziness is mostly over by then, anyway. We got home with all our treasures and dug through the storage room for the Christmas things we had from before. We put up our beautiful new Nativity set from my parents, more candles, shiny things, and our little fake tree. Not to mention made a Christmas mix on itunes and drank hot chocolate with candy canes!
This does not bother me because we did not stress over the purchasing or putting up of the decorations. We just had fun. Christmas joy comes from Jesus, yes, but putting in a little effort to make the holiday sparkle - adding a little magic, if you will - helps me to spend a month thinking about Christmas, rather than two days, which is probably what it would be for me, if there was no big build up.
Josh is out helping to decorate at church (and yes, I am writing papers - right now!), which I'm sure is so much fun. God likes us to get together and have fun! We still have a few more presents to buy, a bunch to make, and some socks, towels and toothpaste to buy for the gifts for the homeless thing at church, and I'm excited about it. I'm also excited to sing songs about Baby Jesus with Lizzy, have time to hang out with people, and be generally exited about life.
Yay Christmas!
4 comments:
I agree Allison - decorating is great. So is buying decotations that are on sale. It's sort of hip to be legalistic about it right now, isn't it? It's ok if you go buy decorations on Saturday, but NOT on Friday, because that is just soooo uncool.
I told a friend yesterday that I was happy I got to come back to the U.S. right at the Christmas season because I have all the pretty decorations and Christmas fun to help through the stress of transition - and she said "oh, I'm glad I'm not going back around a commercial holiday, I don't think I could handle it." I thought about it for a minute, and decided, I disagree! As long as I don't watch any tv which bombards you with rediculous commercials: Christmas is great great fun!
This year, God told Jared + I not to buy any gifts for each other + family b/c in the past we've focused way too much on that. We're giving to World Vision instead and I'm really excited about that!
sounds like a blast! Did Josh tell you about Methusalah and Little Bit? Hope all is well, not much longer!
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