We have allowed commercialisation to make Christmas into a guilt-ridden experience.  I saw a wee bit of a TV show in which a single mother on benefits was working with a debt counsellor to live within her means.  But when they visited at Christmas she had bought all these amazing toys for her 2-year-old son.  The debt counsellor asked her what happened?  She said that he went through a catalogue pointing at pictures saying I want this and that and she bought it for him.  Why?  Why would you do such a radical thing when you are fighting to keep your head above water?  She spent over £700 on his toys. 

I don’t know what the motive in her heart was but I do know there is so much pressure within society to give excessively if you really love someone.  Our calendar year is driving by advertising events built up to hysteria pitch to get us to purchase stuff.  After Christmas there will be the ‘after Christmas’ sales, then in January its usually a white goods sale, then February is Valentine’s Day, followed by Mother’s day in March or May depending upon which area of the world you are in, April is Easter, May is the spring sales, then August the ‘back to school’ sales, September is the ‘end of summer’ sales, October is Halloween, and then November – December is the Christmas season.  Our whole year is dictated by guilt.  I need to be lavish at Valentine’s Day with my partner, I must take my mother out once a year whether I want to see her or not.  Father’s Day is another notable time to feel you have to spend and spend some more.

These events were all good initially.  Why wouldn’t we want to honour our Father and our Mother?  They gave us life, cared for us, invested in us, and served us everyday.  (While in many families they did.)  Halloween was a religious holiday to celebrate All Saints Day where those who have led godly lives have gone before us as an example.  Christmas was to recognise the birth of Christ, the hope of the world. 

We know Jesus wasn’t born on December 25 but the church prescribed that day as a day to celebrate eternal hope coming into the world.  Placed at the darkest, coldest and most miserable time of the year in the Northern Hemisphere with all living things dormant or barely surviving Christmas was to be a time of hope and faith for those who believed.  It’s death all around us but spring is coming.  Life is coming back and there is hope.

Now in many countries it is simply a cornucopia of overindulgence filling the pockets of commerce.  We were in the Canary Islands in mid December a couple of years ago.  We were astonished at the simplicity with which Christmas was celebrated.  It was not a lavish presentation but a very low-key event.  People were not driven by the need to shop and wrap and stuff and return and eat and drink like there was no tomorrow.  Life continued on with a gentle rhythm as it had all year. 

I love Christmas.  And I love giving and receiving gifts.  Even so, I am determined that my life and the life of my family won’t be driven by profit makers but by my choice to celebrate free of guilt, full of hope and faith.