Have We Lost Christmas?

         Have We Lost Christmas?

Well, have we? I guess we’d have to define Christmas before we can answer that. In today’s world the Christmas Season, as some call it, starts well before---would you believe---Halloween. Yes, and if the trend continues it’ll soon start by Labor Day. Many of our stores and their shoppers would agree the Christmas Season is starting earlier every year, but the rush to shop and the stores push to sell is not the Christmas Season. No, it’s the Holiday Shopping Season, and it’s become a worldwide excuse to shop and sell. Santa Claus is showing up in Japan, Korea, and China, and Black Friday, Digital Monday, and Small Business Saturday are there to be sure those billions of shoppers don’t miss anything. So, if we consider Christmas as a shopping and gift giving season and nothing more, then we have lost Christmas. Yes, buying and selling is certainly a part of our fall and winter season, but it’s not Christmas. Christmas is spiritual. But being spiritual can fit in along with gifts, Christmas Parties, and Christmas dinners. But it doesn’t just happen unless we focus on what makes a Spiritual Christmas.

Our Church Choir sang a piece of music recently that made me think about a Spiritual Christmas. The song was called “Peace” and in the song the spirit of Christmas comes through loud and clear. “Joy, Love, and Peace” were musically linked together, and those three words represent a real spiritual Christmas.

The Joy of a spiritual Christmas is expressed in many ways, and receiving a special gift is one of them. When I was 13, my family lived in a small, farm house a mile from town, and our resources were meager. That year I remember thinking a Christmas stocking with oranges, apples, and candy along with a new shirt or sweater, was going to be about it for me. That Christmas morning, when I walked into the living room, I spotted the Christmas Stocking and sure enough there was that rectangular box that I was sure was a shirt, but oh, my gosh! There was another present that took my breath---it was a Browning Sweet 16 Shotgun. I could only stand there saying “Oh, oh, oh.” The joy of receiving overwhelmed me, but equally my parents, who had sacrificed to buy me that wonderful present, experienced the joy of giving. 

Years later Vertis and I stretched a bit to buy our 10 year old daughter a rabbit fur jacket. Our daughter was so happy and shocked that Christmas morning, she immediately burst into tears. We had the spiritual joy of giving and our daughter had the joy of receiving.

However, you don’t need all the trapping of Christmas to have a spiritual Christmas. I remember a Christmas, far away from family and friends, where one Christmas Eve, Vertis and I sat in a damp concrete-block house in front of a small fireplace, and tried to tune in the BBC on a short-wave radio to hear Christmas Carols. We were living in Benghazi, Libya and that Christmas without Christmas decorations, family or friends our only joy was to be with each other. Yes, it was a spiritual Christmas because as lonely as we were, we still had the inner love, joy, and peace of Christmas.

When we think of Christmas Love, we must place the Christ Child as the center of our Christmas thoughts. God sent Jesus because he loved us, and naturally as the song “Peace” says…”Now is the time for love…” Yes, if we miss out on the Christmas love that we should be sharing, we truly have lost Christmas. Christmas should be a time when we express that love to not only family members, but others who have been a special part of our lives.

Now let’s consider the elusive peace of Christmas. Of course, the angles sang …”Peace on Earth…” and our Christmas song “Peace” goes, “and now is the time for Peace…” But do we have the peace of Christmas this year? We have just been through the most continuous presidential race in our memory, and we need to come together united in peace, love, and joy to face our Nation’s problems. Yes, it is possible. I remember standing on Fifth Avenue across from Saint Patricks’ Cathedral right after 9/11 watching as firemen carried one of their own from the church. An American flag was flying in the north wind from a ladder truck, and I have never been prouder to be an American. We need to, as a nation, have peace and unity as we did after 9/11, and that Peace starts with our family and friends.  

No, we haven’t lost Christmas. It’s still there for the taking. So this Christmas, as we exchange gifts, spend time with family and friends, and share a peaceful Christmas dinner, think of Joy, Love, and Peace. Those three words are the spirit of Christmas, and if you celebrate Christmas with those words firmly in your heart, you certainly won’t have lost Christmas.