Personally, I'm sick of said debate.
We can argue for days on end over whether or not Christmas has become completely commercialized, but I, like so many others, am completely sick of the argument. It feels like you can't follow any Christmas tradition these days without someone pointing out how commercialized the holiday has gotten. I must admit, I've fallen prey to this trend as well. I have, sadly, caught myself griping about the true meaning of Christmas being lost to the world, but has it?
The word Christmas quite simply comes from words meaning "Christ's Mass". Very clever. The Christ part is obvious. Duh. The mass part is pretty simple too. It's the mass we've all heard of from the Catholic church. In my opinion, you could even go a little more broad and say that "mass" simply refers to a group of people such as the group of people that gathered on the night of Christ's birth. Thus, the "real meaning" of Christmas is a group of people gathering in the name of the messiah.
"For where two or three gather in my name, there I am with them." Matthew 18:20 (NIV)Christmas has developed a large group of traditions. These range from Christmas trees to going to church to eating Chinese food to creepy old guys watching you and sneaking into your house at night. Not the least of these traditions is gift giving. This is also the one that draws the most criticism.
I have been avoiding making my Christmas list for several weeks now. I was asked for it back before Halloween and refused on principle. I did, however, promise that I would "turn one in" before I went back to school this weekend. The last couple of years, I've found it difficult to make a Christmas list because once I do, I realize well over half of my list is movies. To me, that's not a bad thing. I love movies! However, I know I don't like buying people clothes for Christmas. I think they're boring, and I have no fashion sense. I'm sure there are probably other people who feel similarly about movies.
Because of this whole situation, I found myself falling back to the old standby: Google.
You'd be amazed how many people across the Internet have asked the question, "What do I want for Christmas?" You may be less surprised to learn that more often than not there's at least one smart alec (not my first choice of word) that pipes off some answer about being selfish and not caring about the real meaning of Christmas. I read several of these simply because they got me annoyed (which more often than not seems to lead to some of my best blog posts).
As I was reading annoying people quoting the Bible and blubbering on and on about our self-centered society and blah blah blah, I realized that Christmas lists are not necessarily a sign of a selfish society.
What is the basis of Christmas lists? Christmas presents. How is giving someone a gift a sign of selfishness? In fact, gift giving has become a major gathering point during the holiday season.
"For where two or three gather in my name, there I am with them." Matthew 18:20 (NIV)If you've learned anything about Love Languages, you'll know that one of them is gifts. Gifts show that you care enough to think about a person in advance and get them something. Sometimes, people think about a person in advance and would love to get them a gift, but they don't know what to get them. That's where Christmas lists come in. Who knows what you want better than you do?
By giving gifts, you're showing love. If you're gathering together to show love, is there anything closer to gathering in Christ's name? If two people gather together to show love, are they not fully buying into the true meaning of Christmas? Has Christmas been commercialized? Probably, but no more than any other holiday. Really, from what I can tell, "commercialized" to most people simply means wrapped in tradition.
Gift giving isn't commercialization. It's gathering together in show love. Gathering in Christ's name. Being part of Christ's Mass. Christmas.
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