Christ-mas

I saw a sign today that said "Beware of Christmas celebrations that remove Christ."
Isaac said, "If you remove Christ, you just have mas. What's 'mas'?"

I thought about it for a second: I'm not really good at word origins, in fact, I was perfectly content with everything being a derivative of the Greek language, a la "My Big Fat Greek Wedding."

I did take Spanish class, however, and back then, I learned that 'mas' means 'more.'

And that's exactly right. If you remove Christ, you just have more. More greed, more stuff, more emptiness. More hype, more stress, more people who say I can't wait for the holidays to be over. More depression.

Less of what matters.

Many argue the tradition of celebrating Christmas on December 25; many argue celebrating what has been called a Pagan holiday, altogether. The point is, it's a time to celebrate the greatest gift of our entire existence, and how one tiny little life could blossom into a perfect man, who would wipe away the sins of the world with His incredible sacrifice. And that's the only point. The rest is just gravy.

When I was a kid, I had mile-long Christmas lists, too. I wanted lots of stuff. My kids have those same lists, minus the requests for legwarmers, Fad makeup and the game Girl Talk. I waited for Christmas cookies, parties and the sound of sleigh bells. We didn't have Norad to track Santa, but the weather man on the news would often show super cool "spottings" of the sleigh on the radar. I still wish it was like that; Santa was much more mysterious then.

Anyway, I have had really odd feelings about Christmas this year. Somewhere between anxious and depressed. I feel like it's happening too fast, and it's too routine. I feel like this giant to-do list cloud is hovering, and there has been no peaceful enjoyment of the true meaning of the holiday. Bake this, wrap that, be at so 'n' so's house at 7:00. Fix the lights, plan the meal, clean the house, check to see if Amazon has a better price...more, more, more.

So I'm stopping. Right now. The stress part, I mean. Christmas is coming, ready or not. More importantly, Christ is coming, ready or not. So I'm gonna take His word for it, and cast my worries on Him, instead of trying to make everything perfect for the Super-Holiday this has become. My kids will get over it. They aren't getting mountains of gifts that cost me well into next spring. We talked last night about the gifts of the Magi...and the fact that there were only three. My boys were appalled. We agreed on four gifts each, an idea I saw on Pinterest: Something they want, something they need, something to wear and something to read. I told them to count themselves lucky; it's one more gift than Jesus got.

I'm hoping that we can put more Christ back into Christmas this year; that's my goal.

An unrelated goal, now that I've mentioned it, though: does anyone have a Girl Talk game anymore? My mother always said it was "too-old" for me. I'd like to see if I'm mature enough to play it now. That, and I always thought those fake red zits looked like fun. Anyway, I regress.

Go to church, friends. Learn what this whole thing is all about, and get ready. While we might be able to track Santa with Norad, we sure can't track Jesus, and He's going to show up one of these days, whether the house is decorated or not.