Too soon for Christmas

Too soon for Christmas?
 

My friend absolutely loves CHRISTMAS!! She begins the Christmas countdown on Boxing day. YES she is one of THOSE people. I used to find it annoying when in September/October she would start posting on Facebook… so many weeks until Christmas, so many Mondays/Fridays etc. Now I actually find it funny and look forward to when she will start posting funny Christmas related things on Facebook.

It is quite entertaining watching other people comment on her posts. Some people love it, some think it is funny and go along with it and then there are the ones who are just not ready to be thinking about Christmas that early on.
 

However, I recently came up against a comment which threw me a little bit and made me stop and think. When did Christmas become about commercialism, work, and the pile of stress we end up dumping on ourselves? When did we take Christ out of Christmas?
 

I guess this is probably a bit of a silly question because for many people Christ left Christmas with the arrival of Father Christmas. The friend I mentioned at the start of this is not a Christian, she doesn’t even believe in God yet she loves Christmas.

For many people Christmas isn’t even about the birth of Christ, they may know the story but they don’t celebrate Christmas because of it. For them Christmas is all about the fun, family, giving and receiving of gifts, which is great but they are overlooking the most important, amazing, spectacular gift of all, who is Jesus.
 

Christmas has become stressful and full of work because people are worshiping and giving honour to the wrong thing. Instead of a celebration of our Saviour entering this world it is a mad dash, stress filled, busy, and exasperating time until the day where we can finally relax and enjoy ourselves. That is if we don’t get in a huff over someone’s reaction to what we thought was the perfect gift, or the disappointment in not receiving what we wanted ourselves. Eating too much, drinking too much, spending too much money so we start the new year off in debt, already behind, desperately trying to catch up for the rest of the year only to do it all again next year.
When did Christmas become all about us?
 

Too early for Christmas? I think not. Not if it is about the true meaning of Christmas. Receiving our Lord and Saviour into our lives, receiving the forgiveness of sins, and receiving eternal life with Him.
 

Luke 2:10-11 - “I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people. The Saviour, yes, the Messiah, the Lord—has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David!” 
 

Good news, great joy!! CHRISTMAS!