Giftmas

I’m really finding Christmas difficult this year. We’ve put our tree up later than ever before and even with under a week to go left, I’m still not getting that excitement that I usually have. I know some of this is because we really didn’t expect to be here for Christmas this year. Some of that unexpectedness is a blessing as we get to spend another Christmas with our wider family. The other thing is that I’m really struggling to find Jesus in Christmas this year. Again, some of this is my own fault, I need to spend time with him and reflect on him. Wider though, I look around the stores, I see things on television, the internet etc. and I think, “A lot of people out there don’t really give a monkeys about why we have Christmas.”

My children were watching The Emperor’s New School earlier this week. The episode was about Christmas, but they called if Giftmas. That to me seems like such a more apt word for Christmas in this day and age. Another thing the kids have been doing this week is learning about how Christmas is celebrated in other countries. We have been really surprised to learn that quite a few celebrate December 25th as Jesus being born and then children receive gifts on January 6th which is basically the feast of the three wise men (they brought gifts to Jesus). Some how this makes much more sense to me. There again, maybe I’m just being bah humbug this year – I’m in good company though!