Christmas is almost here! And this post won’t be long — I just want to talk for Five Minutes on Christmas. That’s great news for some of you and miserable sadness for others. Christmas is one of those holidays that has a reputation for bringing out the best and worst in people. Don’t believe me? Look around! Our area made national news for Black Friday fights in Walmart. Classy, people…really classy.
Here’s the problem – most of us have been duped.
We’ve been indoctrinated with political correctness and similar garbage that have convinced so many that Christmas is about everything EXCEPT what it is really about. Think about it: most retailers want you to think Christmas is all about busting your budget in the name of creating happiness for everyone you’ve ever met.
“Merry Christmas” has been replaced with “Happy Holidays”…
Because we wouldn’t want to offend someone who doesn’t celebrate Christmas or acknowledge CHRIST as the message of December 25th. But here’s reality…
Christmas is about JESUS.
It’s about THE GIFT, not a bunch of gifts. Christmas is not about good feelings, overindulgent meals, Santa, trees, cards, bells, sleigh rides, snow, lights, or anything else that we might use as a symbol of Christmas. I’ll be totally honest: I’ve loved and hated Christmas over the years.
Some years I forgot it wasn’t about me and was selfish.
One year I saved up a bunch of time and took almost the entire month of December off from work and spent it with Stacy doing whatever we felt like. Last year was my first without my Dad there. I understand why people can get hung up on Christmas. So here’s how it works for the Myers.
- Christmas is a day of joy and recognition of our salvation, come to the earth in the form of a baby.
- Christmas is a day of fun (remember, God called us to have life and have it abundantly!).
- Not only does Christmas involves celebration and family time, but also worship.
- Presents? Even though I’ll have a few to open, God has blessed me so richly that I can honestly say there is nothing I need that I don’t already have. We buy presents for our kids, but with some perspective and WITHIN BUDGET. Stacy was recently interviewed by NBC for the Today Show on our “three gift Christmas” – you should check out the article
Okay, enough of me typing – Stacy and I thought you might like to watch us talk a bit! We’re calling it our Five Minutes Christmas and sharing so that y’all can see how it works for us.
How do you feel about Christmas? Is it a warm, enjoyable time for you and your family or a struggle?
I used to like It’s A Wonderful Life but ever since I saw the Veggie Tale “It’s A Meaningful Life” I have to say the Veggie Tale version is my favorite now. If you haven’t watched it, please do you won’t be disappointed.
Merry Christmas ya’ll!! Loved this video, as all the others. I don’t get Elf on the Shelf either! That little thing creeps me out! lol.
AMEN!!! You couldn’t have worded that any better. Over the last two weeks or so I’ve noticed this a lot more than usual, and it’s kind of angering. People have their priorities all wrapped up in the wrong things, and are too ignorant (or busy) to realize that we have been incredible blessed through out the year already. Like you said in one post: if you’re celebrating it for the gifts you’ve got it all wrong and should just skip the whole holiday all together. Wishing you and yours a blessed “CHRIST”MAS season!! 🙂
Thanks Barry for the reminder of what the holiday is all about, JESUS!!!! Be merry and enjoy the family!
Loved the video! Christmas is all about Jesus here at our house. We started doing an Advent study this year at night & it has helped us to keep our focus on what’s important. My girls 8 & 6 love being apart of helping light our Advent candles & reading the scriptures. My hope is this will become an important Christmas tradition that they will carry on into adulthood with their own families. Merry Christmas to you & your family! 🙂
Your random video made me laugh! I enjoyed it. 🙂 And I thought it was very interesting about Barry liking Christmas again. I didn’t read the post about advent, but now I am very interested! Thank you for pointing to Jesus as the reason to celebrate Christmas.
I’m with you on this one, as I look around my two bedroom apartment that house three kids and myself I think do they really need more stuff. The answer is no because when I clean it nonstop pick up my kids stuff clothes, toy, ect…. Then there all the adds on tv that tell my 4 year old what he wants for Christmas, I m just so warn out on it all. I think next year I ll ask for gift certifate to childern museums and movie theater stuff we can do as a family instead of more clunder. Christmas is about Jeus and the gift he gave us, we should ceribrate it by remembering him thanking him and with family!
My kids enjoy finding our elf on the shelf (which was a gift from their Papaw) every morning. We joke about him and to my kids he is essentially another stuffed animal. We now the true meaning of Christmas and the kids have been reminded as well as our elf 🙂 Merry Christmas!
Thank you for bringing a smile to my face every time I watch one of your videos, LOVE THEM! I’m from Central, Minnesota and our family is a lot like yours! Our girls (6, 4 & 2) are like Santa who? CHRISTmas is focused on JESUS. Thank you for this site, I truly appreciate it! God Bless!
Your random video made me laugh and think. We keep Christmas low key-ish in our house. Some of our kids gifts are pre-loved or even from the free bookshop (shock/horror) but we know they will love them which is what we care about not how much it costs us. Our kids are adopted and they find this time of year massively stressful, so we show them gifts that are wrapped so they can see that they have something. My 8 yro girl has a bag of brussels sprouts and a tub of gravy granules that she carries around so she can believe there will be something to eat on Christmas day. Every year we end up doing that. It is a sad tradition. Last night she had the nightmare before Christmas that there was no food for Christmas day. As this is an actual memory based issue we rang nanny at 1 am for reassurance. For us it is mostly about family and making sure they don’t worry too much. We do lots of craft and outings, plays, etc. Eat Christmas type foods all month and enjoy advent as part of Christmas. We do Santa, partly because I love it and partly because we want them to experience the magic. This year my self esteem free son aged 6 is convinced he is on the naughty list. Which we don’t subscribe to, in our house Santa is invited because we love them. No conditions. We told him there is a special list for adopted children and that he can’t be on the naughty list. For Christmas I always end up praying for forgiveness to the birth family of my children that damaged them so royally. That would be a great Gift, along with a stress free time for my children. This year begins the tradition of a birthday cake for Jesus so we can sing happy birthday to him. We are keeping that central. Merry Christmas, Myers family, from deepest, windiest, wettest Dorset, uk. x
Wow. May God pour his blessings out on you and your family. I believe that adoption is so close to God’s own heart, as he adopted us through Christ. It is such a compassionate way for you to show Christ’s love for you to care for those children.
For Jesus himself said in Mark 9:36-37: He took a little child whom he placed among them. Taking the child in his arms, he said to them, 37 “Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me.”
Great idea. We started having simple Christmas back when we lost our jobs. I was very stressed but realized how “wealthy” I really was compared to others. So more is spent on charity giving. My sons have commented about the amazing spread of gifts of their childhoods. Lots of books and simple gifts can look like a million bucks to a 5 year old. We also talked about all the ads and limited TV time.
Merry Christmas to you and yours from me and mine! Happy Birthday Jesus!