Canadian Christmas?

Brianna, a friend of ours, is currently doing missionary work in Cambodia where we visited this past May. As a part of a Christmas pageant, she was asked to do a speech on what Christmas means in Canada. She had a tough time thinking of anything besides a materialistic holiday in which people spend way too much money in order to purchase the perfect gift for someone who already has too much [Brianna's Blog] She pleaded with her fellow bloggers to help her think of the positives – sadly, nothing immediately came to my mind.

During the days leading up to Christmas, I tried to search for positives in mainstream Canadian Christmas, but the materialism was blinding. Soon I realized that I too was being sucked into the perfect-gift façade. To ensure I didn’t get carried away and solely focus on the material goods that we were going to supply the individuals on our gift list, I decided to purchase useful, meaningful gifts instead [WorldVision's gift catalog] similar to my girlfriends doing last year. I truly believe in the cause and the work that is being done by Christian organizations around the world, and I truly could not think of anything better to give. Yet, to my surprise, I often felt a sudden, overwhelming urge to run to the store and buy something to “supplement” these gifts. You know, just a little something the “receiver” could keep for themselves. I (mostly) restrained myself – only having to head to the returns desk once and only wrapping a few extra little things.

Interestingly enough, at a Christmas gift exchange one of the recipients of what I thought to be a meaning gift decided to enlighten me as to why it is “a waste to give any handouts to those people” Wow! When we were deciding whether or not to give these gifts I remember thinking “What is the worst reaction possible?” That one didn’t cross my mind!

[Hey, Bri? Can you please not tell the extremely impoverish children you work with everyday that a well-to-do Canadian can even fathom to think that way? Our little secret, k? Thanks.]

Alright, back to searching for something Bri could actually include in her speech…but honestly, by now it was too late to help Bri, but I had to continue searching for the sake of my own sanity. Seriously, how far has Christ been removed from his own birthday?

But, eventually, it hit me. Love.

God loved us so much he sent his Son. On the first Christmas, people traveled from afar to show their love by offering gifts, or even a song on a little toy drum. Canadians still celebrate by traveling from afar and offering gifts to each other, even songs on a little plastic guitar (yeah, you know what I’m talking about you guitar heros out there). Is this not a beautiful thing?

Love is still why we gather together at Christmas. People from all over this vast country make great pilgrimages to share time with the ones dearest to them, even if the people around the table don’t see eye-to-eye on all issues, we are there because of love.

Love. It drives it all. Why else would someone wrap up each little stocking stuffer? Why else would someone get up at 4:00am to roast a turkey? Why else would someone drive across the prairies, alone, to share a few short days with family?

This is love and we are commanded to love one another. But the meaning can be so easily lost once we take the focus off of why we are traveling, celebrating, and loving. Why? Jesus was born on Christmas. Jesus, our only way to heaven.

So yes, I agree that materialism is polluting our celebrations, but I don’t think we can forget the love behind all of it. People travel out of love, gifts are wrapped out of love, turkeys are roasted out of love. We are to love one another, and that’s what drives these gatherings and celebrations.

But, we must keep at heart why we are to love – for Christ’s sake.