Category: Christmas

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Christianity Christmas holiday

Christmas Stress

Christmas Stress

Frequently, we feel less peace and joy and more Christmas stress. With two days to go, it feels like the stress level has gotten to an all-time high.

  • That special toy the daughter wants won’t be available until next Christmas… or the next decade
  • Travel looks to be getting complicated with another wave of the virus. Should we even go to Granny’s?
  • The office has never been this busy before Christmas. Where did all this business come from anyway?

Christmas stress has always been prevalent. I wrote about it and drew this cartoon in 2012. But of course, the last two years have had added layers of stress. We just don’t know what the future holds. Short-term and long-term planning seems impossible.

Cartoon of a boy with a wreath on his head

What do we do when the stress is getting to us? How can we keep from taking it out on our loved ones with a strategically placed wreath? Slow down, take a deep breath and remember the reason for the season.

“When they [Magi or Wise Men] saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy.

“And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense and myrrh.”

Matthew 2:10–11 (KJV) via Bible Gateway.com

Remember the Why

Why do we celebrate? It isn’t about any of these:

  • The perfect present under the tree
  • Getting together with family
  • A Martha Stewart, or Pioneer Woman-inspired spread on a snowy Christmas morning

It is about a baby and the hope he brought a cold, dark world. The winter solstice has come and the days are already getting longer. Winter will be here for a while, but summer is coming. The Light of the World has come into the world as well. We can slow down, celebrate, and know things will be all right.

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Christmas holiday

Entitled Christmas

Entitled Christmas

What if Mary and Joseph gave us the first example of an entitled Christmas? After all, I’ve lived around farmers most of my life. Many of my family are farmers and not one of them decided it was a good idea to have their baby in a stable.

What if Mary and Joseph spent the journey to Bethlehem complaining about the Roman government and the stupid census? Of all the times for the government to count people so they could be taxed more! Why couldn’t God make things more convenient for them?

And look at all that traffic! Everyone was passing them because an “obviously pregnant woman” would not be able to kick it into high gear. What if Joseph was steaming because they weren’t making good time?

Silent Night?

Joseph could have been very indignant that the innkeeper had no room. Even if the baby wasn’t the Messiah, shouldn’t a baby have the right to be born in a clean, peaceful environment? What if Mary gave Joseph a hard time for being unable to hustle and find a decent place for them? Couldn’t the guy book a reservation?

Then what if Mary and Joseph spent the night brooding about their situation when the shepherds arrived? Isn’t it bad enough they have to face the indignity of a stable birth? Sure, if you are stuck in a stable, I guess shepherds would be the logical next step. After all, the innkeeper is busy with all the paying guests in the warm, comfortable inn. Why not have smelly shepherds join the party with their newborn?

Entitlement Ruins Christmas

Whether it’s a gift we expected but didn’t get or a feeling that we deserve better than this or that, Christmas holiday entitlement can ruin the season. There are plenty of examples of people that make the holidays less than bright. When the season of giving becomes a time of entitlement, there is little peace on earth, or within.

Instead of encouraging a selfish mentality, we can nurture a giving spirit in our children and ourselves. Here are some tips I wrote to do just that!

We have plenty of reasons to have gratitude this time of year. And we can be giving instead of thinking about how things “should be.” May your Christmas holiday be merry and bright.

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Christianity Christmas holiday

The Fourth Sunday of Advent is About Love

Advent Candles

The Fourth Sunday of Advent reminds us that Jesus came to earth because of agapé love. Jesus didn’t just teach about love, he showed it, then encouraged his followers to do the same. It’s the crescendo of a month of anticipation.

When we feel gratitude for receiving hope, peace, and joy, love flows freely. It makes life much easier.

“Faith makes all things possible… love makes all things easy.”
Dwight L. Moody

Dwight L. Moody Quotes. BrainyQuote.com, BrainyMedia Inc, 2021. https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/dwight_l_moody_157630, accessed December 19, 2021.

The word for love in the original Greek text is “agapé.” it is interpreted as an unconditional, unmerited, goodwill; a willful act. It is an action, not just a feeling. As a result, we can love others when they aren’t very lovable.

Nobody can fall out of agapé love. It is a choice that goes beyond feelings. When we realize what God did for us in love, it makes us reconsider how we treat others.

One of my favorite Christmas songs is When Love Came Down by Point of Grace.

Point Of Grace: When Love Came Down (Live in Wichita, KS 2015)

Christmas is coming! We have a week to prepare. But it’s about more than the presents. It’s about agapé love. We can love others because love came down on the first Christmas. Because He showed us, we can have hope, peace, joy, and love. May you experience it and be able to show it as we enter the final week of Christmas.

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Christmas holiday

Christmas Through the Eyes of a Child

There's nothing sadder in this world than to awake Christmas morning and not be a child. Erma Bombeck

Ah! If only we could always see Christmas through the eyes of a child! I can relate to Erma Bombeck’s quote.

“There’s nothing sadder in this world than to awake Christmas morning and not be a child.”

Erma Bombeck

Erma Bombeck Quotes. BrainyQuote.com, BrainyMedia Inc, 2021. https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/erma_bombeck_124420, accessed December 18, 2021.

When we were children, Christmas was always a magical time of the year. We had big wishes for amazing toys. Many of us reasoned if we just got our act together between Thanksgiving and Christmas, hopefully, Santa wouldn’t notice our behavior the other eleven months of the year.

Then we grew up. Some of us got naughty while others remained nice. It seemed to be so easy for those made of sugar, spice, and everything nice.

Naughty and Nice Photo
I must have been naughty in 2014, while my wife remained nice.

Christmas morning is a little different when you are grown up and spent the night before deciphering assembly instructions, written in questionable English. Many a Christmas Eve, early Christmas morning, I would be squinting in the low light while the TV proclaimed midnight mass from the Vatican. It made it very difficult to get mad and throw things when the Pope was blessing everything and everyone.

Now, not only am I grown up, but so are my kids. And there aren’t any grandchildren yet. It feels like a bit of a Christmas desert these days. There are no toys under the tree. Instead, there is a surely cat (she’s not a Christmas present. She just likes to lay under there and chew fake pine needles). And this year, there won’t be excited kids getting us up to announce the obvious; that it’s Christmas morning.

Is it as sad as Erma Bombeck proclaimed? Perhaps not. I still have a very nice, beautiful wife that just oozes Christmas spirit. She knows just what I need, even though I had no clue. Who would’ve thought I was out of tube socks anyway? I sure didn’t!

My hope for you is that if you have young children, it will be a wonderful magical Christmas for you this year. If not, may you be able to reach back into time, reminisce about a few Christmases long ago, and see it through the eyes of a child. I think that’s what I’ll be doing with my sugar and spice wife.

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Christmas holiday

Christmas Reality Shows

Christmas Reality Shows

I’ve watched a lot of Christmas reality shows this year. If it isn’t a Christmas bake-off, it’s a decoration competition. I’ve watched a lot of people get very busy impressing judges for fabulous prizes.

I drew this cartoon eleven years ago. Apparently, I was watching a lot of them in 2010 as well. It still amazes me reality shows have been around that long, even longer! But it must be so because the mobile phone the elf is holding sure doesn’t hold up to today’s technology.

Cartoon of an elf and Santa Claus. The elf says, "It's another cable TV producer asking if we'd like to be in a reality show."

I hope Santa Claus doesn’t cave into the pressure. If you think we have supply chain issues now, just think what it would be if the elves had to ham it up for the cameras! Does anything really get done on those shows? I’d like to see how productivity fared before and after one of these programs invades a company!

Reality gets distorted when a camera is on. If you Google “Cameras in the Courtroom Effects,” you’ll get plenty of examples where cameras affected a trial. Reality is rarely recorded before a camera. How many of us ham it up for a photo, or stage a shot for social media?

I will still watch the occasional reality show. But I am under no allusion that I’m watching reality. I hope Santa agrees with that too.