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Saturday, December 17, 2005

Enjoy Christmas

I am 27 years old, almost 28, and I love Christmas. That's right you heard me, I love Christmas, and I mean all of it. Celebrating Christ's birth, family time, gifts, meals, time with friends and Christmas movies. For as many years as I can remember living I have known that Christmas is about Christ, and to this day that is something I hold with much reverence and priority. The one thing that I enjoy most about Christmas are the gifts, both giving and receiving. There I said it. The most horrible thing in the eyes of the Christian world. Why shouldn't I be able to admit that? Isn't that the whole purpose of Christmas? This very holiday is centered around the greatest gift EVER given to humanity. The creator of all things cared so much about all the wretches that live here to give CHRIST to all of us. I see no wrong in giving gifts that are given out of love. A gift does not mean you have to spend thousands of dollars like people are made to believe these days. A gift can be cheap, expensive or homemade. Any of these prices will do as long as they are given out of love.

Even Christ was given gifts as a child. Magi anyone? I'll even speculate that Mary and Joseph gave gifts to Jesus many other times. They did so because they loved their son and wanted to do something nice for him. The heart of the matter is to give because you want to and care about the person.

Kimmy and I have a tradition we keep each year, one that we intend to continue with our children. While sitting under our Christmas tree on Christmas morning we read aloud the account of Christ's birth from the gospel of Luke and in this way take time to reflect on what it is we are celebrating. I think celebrate is the key word and the point of this post. Christmas is a joyful time. A time to celebrate and enjoy all the gifts of the season.

"I love you." - Princess Leia
"I know" - Han Solo

5 Comments:

At 1:11 PM EST, Blogger Adrienne said...

A very accurate assessment of Christmas.

 
At 10:47 PM EST, Blogger Elizabeth said...

I hope that in my post about Christmas that I was not mistaken by my perspect of Christmas. I completely agree that we give gifts out of love and I enjoy Christmas, very much so. For me, my perspect has changed a bit, but I still love all the aspects of the holiday season.

 
At 9:16 AM EST, Blogger kimw said...

Nice perspective, Kevin! I, too, love giving and receiving gifts. I'm not a COMPLETE scrooge. Like you said, gifts that are lovingly thought through. Unfortunately, the art (yes, proper gift-giving is an ART) of gift-giving is getting lost and it's sad that one of the top gifts this year is going to be gift cards. Where's the thought in that? It's one of the things that saddens me about Christmas these days. It's almost become more about monetary value than the value of the thought that was put into the gift. One of my family's traditions is also the same as yours and Kimmy's – to read the account of Christ's birth from Luke. We do it before we open our gifts, and it serves to remind us of the greatest gift of all.

 
At 11:58 AM EST, Blogger Kimmy said...

Kim, while I agree it is sad for the number one gift to be gift cards, I must admit I am not entirely against them . Sometimes a gift card makes a great gift simply because it gives one license to go out and buy something special that they might not normally buy for themself. You know those things you want really badly but you feel too guilty spending the grocery money on? I don't think that the whole world should start giving and receiving only gift cards each year, that would be pretty pointless and boring. I usually don't purchase them unless I am stumped on what to get someone, in that case I'd rather get them a gift card to their favorite place than a fruitcake. ( I don't know anyone who likes fruitcake, if you do, you are the first!) But, I just got to admit, sometimes... gift cards can be pretty cool.

 
At 10:21 AM EST, Anonymous Anonymous said...

!*%#WHAT#%*! NO ONE LIKES FRUITCAKE? You must be crazy. Fruitcake is God's gift to the season, (Yeah yeah I know, besides the birth of God's Son, our Savior)but really the gift that keeps on giving is a fruitcake. I mean, what's not to like? Stale Gummy Fruit-check. Assorted Nuts-check. Weird chewy bread stuff-check. All wonderful things, hard to explain yes, but wonderful. Kimmy, you may have opened a whole new bag of tricks with your haphazard comment against the one true holiday tradition!
-Sam
P.S. I will take anyone's extra fruitcake they don't want. Really. Hello? Do I have any friends left? Hello?

 

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