It was a few days after I wrote my blog on Halloween that I decided to go to the store to look for some cute little decorations. Imagine my amazement when there in front of me in the middle of OCTOBER was an entire aisle and display of Christmas decorations! Christmas has come to mean many things to different people over the years, but to retailers it means $$.

Its hard to resist, isn't it? The twinkle light displays, the beautiful packaging, trinkets, toys, gadets and widgets all guaranteed to make your lives infinitely easier, and make loved ones love and appreciate you more. I love Christmas--I always have! But it seems that as years went by, it just got harder and harder to really enjoy this special time of year. I couldn't understand why this was, until I realized that I was supplanting the Christmas Spirit with the Christmas spirit. In other words, the god of self-absorption which encompasses materialism, commercialism, and getting all replaced the God of Love which encompasses sacrifice, serving and giving.

We decided to do something about this, and started coming up with ideas. Danny and I decided about 4 years ago to espouse some wisdom issued from my mom. She was talking about how she had always overdone gift giving with my sister and I, and that if she had to do it all over again, we would get no more than 3 gifts-after all, -that's all that Jesus was given, so why should we get more? So, that is what we do. Three gifts per person, and 3 "family" gifts.

What has this done? Several things, actually. Not only has it lessened our spending, but it makes us focus on looking for gifts that are special. It also, believe it or not, has made the shopping aspect less desirable. After all, part of the "fun" of shopping is getting great deals on things you don't need or want and justifying it as a gift. When you only have 3, you tend to be a bit more particular. It also gives us opportunities to talk about Jesus. People are floored that we only by each other 3 gifts! They want to know why,and we happily tell them!

Some other things we do to keep the meaning of Christmas before us is to focus on relationships, and serving/blessing others. Years ago when we were newly married, Danny and I decided to make cookies for our neighbors at Christmas in hopes of meeting them. Well after a few years of people saying, "Oh, how sweet! Thanks!", and then shutting their doors, we decided to make them come to us. This practice is now known as our Annual Cookie Open House. In the course of two days, Danny makes ~90 dozen cookies. I invite about 500 people to include friends, coworkers, every home in our neighborhood, church family, etc. and we open up our home all day on the first Saturday of December for people to come and partake. Nothing is required--folks don't even have to stay, though we do provide coffee, tea, milk, and packaging to take some cookies home. And each year we get between 100-200 people. The best part is that our home usually has people from each "group" in our home at the same time! So, our church family also gets the chance to make relationships.

There are so many things we can do. I'd love to hear some of the things you do to keep from getting sucked in by the enemies lure of a self-absorbed, commercial Christmas! Anyone?