All the blogs I look at every day are featuring what their writers and their families are doing in preparation for Christmas. Lovely pictures posted of peoples homes, and their family decorations, and traditions show the excitement and anticipation of the holiday. One woman has had shoulder surgery, and her husband and kids are still doing all the decorating! Some of the homes are absolutely beautiful!
I haven’t decorated a thing for Christmas this year. The only Christmas decoration I have in my house at this moment is the calendar picture in my office.
I had convinced myself that since the kids were not going to be home for Christmas this year that there was no reason to “drag” out all the Christmas decorations. Oh, I would put up the Nativity scene, after all isn’t that what Christmas is REALLY about?
Then I talked to Audrey the other night and she said she wasn’t going to put their Christmas tree up, the apt just wasn’t big enough. I thought “You have to decorate! It will be depressing for you if you don’t put up some Christmas stuff!”
Ryan has a phrase for Audrey and I that he coined early in their relationship and it is right on the money “Pot, meet Kettle, Kettle, meet pot.” as he looks back and forth between us. In other words we are A LOT alike.
As I heard my daughters reason for not decorating this year, and didn’t deem it worthy of denying them the festiveness of the holiday, simply because of space, I heard myself in her voice, only the reason was just a different one.
I realized that I needed to get to the bottom of this “not NEEDING to decorate” excuse and determine where it is coming from.
Granted my children live a long way away and won’t be home for Christmas, and my mother passed away in Jan. and this is our first Christmas without grandma. Yes, Roger and I will be home by ourselves……… These are what many people would deem legitimate reasons for not decorating and getting into the holiday festiveness by putting up a bunch of Christmas decorations. However, as I was making the bed this morning, and pulling the covers up on my husband’s side of the bed, I was reminded I am not the only one missing our kids over the holiday, and missing that little short woman we called Granma, and Mama.
Roger and I have reached a stage in our lives where we are probably going to be spending a lot of holidays, Christmas included, by ourselves. Am I going to simply stop celebrating the birth of my Savior and all that it implies because there isn’t a crowd around and because my circumstances have changed? Am I going to, as my mother would have said, “throw the baby out with the bath water”?
After a little “come to Jesus” meeting, I had to apologize, and tell Him that I would be getting ready for his party just like usual. I came to realize that even at the age of 53, I was still making Christmas about me. Oh yes, I could celebrate it in a grass hut with no decorations or in a beautifully decorated house on a hill, but what would be the motivation and attitude of my heart in either circumstance? Now I know that Christmas isn’t in the decorating, and the baking, and the gift giving, and tree trimming, but all those things are a representation of the preparation for the coming of our Savior. He was the biggest and best gift; ours are simply cheap reminders of what God did for us. But all these things done in the right heart attitude (yes I said ATTITUDE!!) are symbols to the outside world of the party we have every year at the birth of our Savior.
I’ve also decided that I am going to view my decorations that I have put out the same way year after year in a new light, and maybe shake things up a bit. Maybe I won’t put the entire tree up, but that doesn’t mean I can’t display some favorite ornaments in a fashion that will make us smile and remember who is coming.
Paul reminds the Thessalonians in the second letter to them: “Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”
After all, by myself or in a crowd, Jesus is my Savior and THAT is worth being joyful, giving thanks and celebrating.
P.S I'm still trying to find the song Tijuana Christmas by the Border Brass to add to our song list, in the meantime hope you enjoy the Christmas music :)
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