I promise you I am NOT a scrooge! I really am not... but sometimes I think that Christmas gets out of hand. In a secular, materialistic, buying presents sort of way.
This is going to make me sound like a Scrooge, but I'm going to write it anyway.
I really don't love to spend boatloads of cash in a matter of 30 days. Trey will be shocked to read this, I'm sure. But it's completely true! I start making a list of people I'm going to buy things for and suddenly it starts to grow. Every year it happens. Really, we don't buy presents for every member of our immediate families and I couldn't be happier about that. No one has a real NEED for anything, so we get together and have family meals and let the kids open presents on Christmas and I love it. In my family I buy gifts for our child (soon to be children) and my sister's two kids. We stopped buying gifts for each adult years ago and it makes life easier. We have traditionally drawn names each year and bought one nice gift for our secret person, but this year we forgot to do it. Once again, this does not bother me one bit. Trey and I haven't exchanged presents for each other in years and that also makes things easier and less stressful. After all, the holidays are meant to be enjoyed, not frantic.
Now, I love buying a thoughtful and nice gift for a loved one as much as the next person, but when all of my loved ones are blessed beyond measure I start to have a hard time with seeing the point of doing it.
I'm going to reiterate the fact that I am NOT a Scrooge!
Let me clarify. I think that Christmas should be Christ centered. I am trying to make Lauren understand why we celebrate Christmas in the first place. Because the Christ-child was born! Oh sure, Santa Claus is fun and whimsical, but it's not the focus and I never want her to think it is. Yes, I want Lauren (and this new baby) to enjoy Christmas and all the fun things that go along with it, but I don't want Christ to get lost.
As far as gift-giving is concerned I sincerely LOVE watching the kids in our family open gifts at Christmas. I love it! It's the best thing about Christmas morning.
But also, I love that this year our Sunday School class adopted a single mom and her 2 kids to help at Christmas. I think we are going to be able to overwhelm her basic neccessities and Christmas gifts for her and her kids. It brings me such happiness knowing that we are able and blessed to help her. THAT is what Christmas is about. Giving to those who are less fortunate (not that we shouldn't do that year round). Not placing the focus on ourselves, but on others. Showing the love of CHRIST at CHRISTmas.
So when I find my Christmas list of people to buy for growing and growing, it starts to make me wonder if I've lost my priorities in it all. I start to think that maybe I'm buying gifts out of obligation? I will always have the kids on my list to buy for and I enjoy doing that, but it's the little things that creep up on me each year that I tend to forget about until now. Like teacher gifts, co-worker gifts, and boss gifts, etc. These people are very important in my life, but do we really need to give each other gifts to let them know that? Are we "gifting" to each other because we feel like we are supposed to do it? I don't know... but in order not to be the Scrooge I gift-give with all of them. I don't want anyone to feel unappreciated, so I give the gifts in hopes that the message is conveyed.
I'm not sure if that makes any sense at all. I just wanted to think it through and get it all out on "paper".
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