Changing Christmas

Traffic jams, shopping stress, mall rushes, visiting relatives, wrapping gifts...too much to do, not enough time. Or money. Has the Christmas season lost it's original purpose? Has the story of Christ's birth been forgotten and replaced with a gift exchanging holiday without real meaning? Ok, maybe that's pushing it. After all, even though exchanging gifts during Christmas is not a tradition originated by the early church, it is one that has always blessed many (check out this Relevant Magazine article for more on that). But who hasn't wondered whether everything we do during this time of the year are really contributing to celebrating the coming of our Savior? While many of us are out buying and receiving gifts, millions of people around the world continue to starve for the very basic needs.

But it doesn't have to be a downward spiral, specially if it's up to the folks from Advent Conspiracy. "It takes a lot of patience to say there's a different way - Christmas doesn't have to be like this," said one youth pastor who joined the movement. The idea is simple: spend and rush less, so you can give gifts that are more meaningful to those you love, and give more to causes around the world. Check out the video:

And the fight doesn't stop there. The group is also hoping that Christians will stop spending so much time trying to force the secular world to remember the 'reason for the season'. As a pastor from Portland explained on this Yahoo article, "Christians get all bent out of shape over the fact that someone didn't say 'Merry Christmas' when I walked into the store. But why are we expecting the store to tell our story? That's just ridiculous." In other words, it's our job to tell the story of Jesus, not theirs. So instead of protesting the world for being the world, let's spend more time being the church we are called to be.

So this Christmas, ask yourself. Are the traditions you are holding on to helping spread the true story of Christmas, or the story of consumerism? Hopefully, more of us will do as the shepherds did after they saw Jesus, and tell all we know about the Savior Christ:

So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. - Luke 2:16-18