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.
