This is day three of the 12 Lists of Christmas…
I love Christmas, but I don’t love the incessant focus on greed and gimme gimme. I’m not a complete humbug, don’t get me wrong. I enjoy giving gifts–and frankly, I enjoy getting them too.
But it’s easy to get distracted by the consumerism of Christmas and forget what it’s all about. I’m not suggesting we all launch one of those militant “Put Christ Back in Christmas” campaigns. If Christ gets removed from my family’s Christmas, I have no one to blame but myself.
At our house, each kid gets three gifts on the three days leading up to Christmas. (We always celebrate Christmas with one set of grandparents or the other.) Limiting the number of gifts helps us control our own impulse to buy nutty amounts of stuff for our kids. A good impulse in some ways, but one we need to keep in check. And that also happens to be the number of gifts the magi brought Jesus, so we give the kinds of gifts that Jesus received.
1) Gifts of Myrrh (for health and wellness)
Myrrh is a resin from the Commiphora tree in Somalia, and it has medicinal value. I’ve never actually seen any, but I’m told it’s something like vasaline.
In our house, gifts of myrrh are for the body. This can include clothing, cool pirate tooth brushes, training wheels for a bicycle, etc. We figure anything that promotes good health. Amy and I even debated a bat house this year, under the ruse that what’s good for the earth is good for the body. But we decided against that, mainly because we were a little nervous about a colony of bats in our backyard. Some day maybe.
2) Gifts of Frankincense (for spiritual growth)
Frankincense comes from a tree too. I actually have some of this because my mother sells essential oils. It is great stuff!
I’ve read accounts that say this incense was used as part of the first century burial rituals. I’m no scholar, so I can’t vouch for that. But I do know that incense is certainly part of many church worship services. For that reason, gifts of Frankincense are for spiritual growth.
The kids might get a new Bible, an inspirational movie (like VeggieTales or Prince Caspian), a devotional journal, inspirational music, or something similar.
3) Gifts of Gold (for pure joy, duh!)
Gold may have had some significant meaning in the first century, but we figure this is the place for the regular Christmas toy. Fairy dolls, matchbox cars and tracks, pirate ships, littlest pet shop stuff, good old fashioned toys.
We don’t make a huge fuss over the themes. But we explain it (and the Luke story) to our kids. It’s not fancy. It’s not elaborate. It’s not even Advent Conspiracy, but it’s clear.
And giving gifts to each other doesn’t mean we can’t also still answer the call to give generously to our favorite charity.
{ 1 trackback }
{ 17 comments }
YES! Dude that is awesome way to keep Christmas on track! I love you, man!
What about gifts from family?
Ah. Gifts from the family is not something we try to control anymore. We did
ask our parents not to buy the kids more than three things.
Great way to lead your children celebrating Christmas – I'm sure your example will provoke some of us to re-evaluate how we celebrate Christmas with our families.
Thanks, ESI. I've gathered that the most important thing is to talk
about it throughout the season. If we just shop and shop and shop,
then toss out a brief summary of the nativity on Christmas Eve, the
family will know what the season really means to us.
What a great theme. We just did a Sunday school rotation on Christmas from the perspective of the wise men. This would be a great way to extend the theme. Thank you.
we've tried for two years now to alter our family tradition. presently everyone buys for everyone, and i have:
a wife and two kids,
one sister-in-law and her daughter,
two sets of parents and my biological dad,
five sisters and two brothers-in-law,
and five nieces.
and we travel with gifts.
it was somewhat manageable back in the day, but we've grown quickly in the last few years. so far, alternate plans have been trumped for one reason or another. however, we (my wife and i) are putting our stockinged feet down and demanding change for next year. we have a couple of plans in the making, and i'm glad for a bit of inspiration here this morning, marcus.
merry christmas!
BeyondJustMom, thank YOU for your kind words.
Sam, Merry Christmas to you too! And thanks for dropping by and
commenting. You've got a great blog, friend. I'm glad the idea here
inspires you.
On a related note, because of our travel plans this year, our first
present came this morning–Frankincense. We got our oldest Caspian and
Gifts (by Ursula K. LeGuin). We got our youngest <a
href=”http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1400312981?ie=UTF8&tag=thehighcallio-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1400312981″>God's
Mighty Warrior Bedtime Bible Stories and Pirates Who Don't Do
Anything.
But LeGuin isn't Christian, you might say. Exactly. We'll read the
book together, find the common grace in it together, and talk about
how it may differ from the specific grace of Jesus.
It seems the Bible did not put any significance to Christmas celebration, so it left us absolutely no precedence, example, or advice about celebrating this worldly designed pageant that generally makes a mockery of Christ. I think at some point we may give up our vain effort to orient it towards Christ and let it follow the materialistic logic for which it was designed And let us go celebrating the birth of Christ by receiving Him in our hearts and honoring Him daily.
Well, godwordediting, thanks for your comments. I did not intend to throw away the baby with the water – certainly not baby Jesus with the worldly festivities that Christamas fosters around Him. If you read over my comment you will notice I was careful to drain off the water and leave the celebration of the birth of Christ as a wonderful event that requires not the worldly waters of Christmas for its celebration but the sincere hearts of children and adults who receive Him and so honor the purpose of His coming and celebrate that throughout the rest of their lives every moment of every year, including this time of year.
We agree then! We should definitely honor God with every day of our
lives in every area and every activity.
I love this post! We're making about 1/2 our gifts this year. My friend is doing *all* of hers by hand…she has 4 kids who have been absolutely wonderful about the idea. I love the Magi idea, in fact your post was the deciding factor in a gift purchase yesterday, and also reminded me that my youngest asked for her own “real” Bible this year. Her excitement over that is a gift for *me*! Thanks for the great ideas.
This is a wonderful idea. It keeps gift-giving in check, and brings the focus back to the Giver — instead of the gifts.
Also, I love this whole “12 lists of Christmas” thing you have going on here. Cool.
Erica, we've done the gift making thing before too. This year, we
actually opted out of gift making because it can be a bit stressful
sometimes. I'm sure we'll do it again someday.
Jennifer, I'm so glad you're enjoying the list idea. I'm having fun
with it too. Some good lists coming up…
We dealt with the commercial Christmas in two ways this year:
1) My wife made about 3/4 of the gifts we gave to friends/family. I wish I could claim some of the credit, but she's the crafty one. There's something cool about handmade gifts, especially when they're well-thought out for each person and not just a tea cozy (whatever that is).
2) For our immediate family we redefined Christmas so that half the money that would be spent on gifts for us had to be given away. So if we were going to spend $40 on my daughter for Christmas, we'd buy her $20 in gifts and then she had $20 to give away as she saw fit.
Since my daughter is just turning 3 I'm not sure she completely grasped the concept, but in a few years I think she will. As for my wife and I, it was great. It meant a smaller Christmas but also more giving to the people who really need it. I found freedom in having a small of wad of cash I could just give away.
I really like the idea of giving the kids money to choose what charity it
goes to! That's so simple, but also makes generosity feel like a treat.
We dealt with the commercial Christmas in two ways this year:
1) My wife made about 3/4 of the gifts we gave to friends/family. I wish I could claim some of the credit, but she's the crafty one. There's something cool about handmade gifts, especially when they're well-thought out for each person and not just a tea cozy (whatever that is).
2) For our immediate family we redefined Christmas so that half the money that would be spent on gifts for us had to be given away. So if we were going to spend $40 on my daughter for Christmas, we'd buy her $20 in gifts and then she had $20 to give away as she saw fit.
Since my daughter is just turning 3 I'm not sure she completely grasped the concept, but in a few years I think she will. As for my wife and I, it was great. It meant a smaller Christmas but also more giving to the people who really need it. I found freedom in having a small of wad of cash I could just give away.
Comments on this entry are closed.