It just occurred to me, after talking with some secular neighbors, that many people are not Christians, yet desire to celebrate Christmas anyway. How do they do it? One friend of mine (who is ostensibly Christian) is having what I call The Movie Christmas. On Christmas day she is driving to a Scandinavian-themed town to have Belgian waffles, and then will go see a horror movie with her friend. This stirred up a feeling of vague unease within me, hence the topic of this post.
I've been so wrapped up in my religious musings that I forgot to take non-religious people into account. They have weak faith or no faith at all in Christ. And yet, rather than be militantly anti-Christmas, they feel entitled to take part in whatever secular offerings our culture (yech! I hate that phrase, yet it fits so often...) serves up for the holiday. Visiting with friends and family, shopping, eating, recreating, movie-going, or just simply sleeping is, for them, the best way to spend the day.
You can't try and tell these people that they're wrong. Deep inside, they must know. That's why they have to do SOMETHING. But the trouble is, the something they end up doing isn't for God, or other people. It's ultimately for themselves. If we're not confessing Christ, we must try to actively avoid Him. If we de-throne God, we end up placing ourselves in His place. We must hurry and scurry to gather up nuts to try and fill up the hole in our hearts He has left behind. We must salve the wound by some means--
1) The Big Money Blow-Out Christmas
Surely, these people are out there. They are the ones who watch the ads, because they've been saving up all their wants for "big stuff" all year, and now they're determined...they're finally going to buy the new BMW, the huge flat-screen TV, the mondo stereo system, or the 15' tree. Folks of more modest means end up spending way too much money--especially to impress jaded kids--because that's what they've been led to expect. The trend of Protestants cancelling Christmas day services merely feeds this tendency--we pay lip service to Jesus, but it's really all about fun, family, food, and new stuff.
2) The Vintage Christmas
Nostalgia, not faith, gets these people going. They long for Christmases past, watch old holiday films--like Miracle on 34th Street or It's a Wonderful Life--with religious intensity. They scan magazines to create the perfect traditional Christmas decor for their homes, without any images of the Nativity or mentions of Christianity. They may have kept lists for months and shopped for days so as to have just the perfect gift on hand for everyone. They want the frosting without the cookie, light without heat, and the egg-nog without the calories. They often have huge parties or place great emphasis on "family time" as the reason for the season.
3) The Football / Shop-til-you-drop Christmas
This kind of celebration often happens concurrently, with the men holed up in the house roaring over bad referee calls while the women escape to the mall for deep Christmas-day discounts. What's sad about this kind of Christmas is that it divides families and keeps them focused on other stuff. Unfortunately, we have probably all had one of these, because it keeps people at large family gatherings from killing each other.
5) The Bah Humbug Christmas
This is the kind of Christmas that old people have after the kids have left the house, and with them, any kind of religiosity on the part of the parents. "Oh, we used to put on such a production for the kids," they chuckle. "But this year we didn't even put up a tree. Harold is asleep on the couch, and I'm due over at Barb's for Bunco." Pretending that Christmas is not happening is the magic bullet for them.
So what do we do? I don't want to judge these people, I want to evangelize them. In a block full of blow-up santas and light-up deer, I really wanted to have a nativity scene, but I couldn't find one. My cookies have fallen flat (I made them with margarine--DOH!). I would like to distribute some small token gift to my neighbors, but don't want to offend. So, I invite suggestions. How do you deal with this problem? What other kinds of secular Christmas revelry have I missed?
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4 comments:
I don't judge these people. I pray for them, give them a wam hello, and say "Merry Christmas." They do not yet realize the "Christmas Spirit" is really the holy spirit, but the fact that they sense someting beautiful about the holiday is a start.
These people, and I include my neighbors and most of my extended family, are seeking the peace of Christ, in all the externals, without realizing it. Most of them have abandoned their childhood faith out of their refusal to live moral lives, bitterness at life's trials, or sheer neglect.They seek the gifts, but not the giver.
St. Augustine spoke of them when he said, "our hearts are restless until they rest in thee".
I think the vintage Christmas-ers are the lowest hanging fruit---at least they are putting people ahead of things. Good post, do you mind if I link it to my blog?
I used to have a sort of bah-humbug hubbs. I think he felt bad for years that we didn't have enough money to buy really cool and big presents for the kids and others in the family (that's how he was raised, in a secular sort of Christmas family). I couldn't shake him out of his "Christmas funk" in those years because he's stubborn and wouldn't budge. Now that we can sort of afford better things, he's gotten a little more in to the "spirit" of Christmas but he obviously still doesn't quite "get" it. I try to show by example but he's not here every day alll day (somebody's gotta get paid!) to see what I'm teaching the kids so it will be a long road, but he's almost there. Pray for us, too!
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