All is prepared: cards sent, houses decorated, trees trimmed, gifts wrapped, special foods ready.
    All is prepared: candles on the Advent Wreath all lit and the last ornament placed on the Jesse Tree.

Let the celebration begin.

    Of the many things we do to celebrate Christmas, have you ever wondered why we give gifts?  Our first response might be, “It’s something we always do—it’s a custom that we have in our family.  It’s what we do in our country.” Getting beneath the surface we might say, “We do this to express our love for the person receiving the gift.”  Both of these responses are part of the uneven history of Christmas gift-giving.  

    When Christianity became a legitimate religion in the Roman Empire, the gift-giving associated with the pagan god, Saturnalia, was adopted by Christianity and associated with Jesus Christ, God’s gift to us.  Moving forward through the centuries and different countries, the custom was neither universally adopted nor did it have the same meaning.  

   Exchanging gifts, as we do today, was not popular in the early days of our country, largely because giving gifts at Christmas was associated with charity and limited to giving to those who had less.  We have remnants of this in “toy drives,” “giving trees,” “coat drives,” etc.  But as customs like Christmas trees and Santa Claus were imported to America the way was paved to make Christmas presents a traditional part of the holiday. Soon companies in America saw this as an opportunity to sell more products and began advertising the idea of gift giving on Christmas as the norm.

   Gift-giving and gift-exchange have become a center-piece in our consumer-oriented culture. They are here to stay—at least for a while.  As Christians we might want to distance ourselves from the cultural norm and once again see our giving of gifts as a reminder that God so loved us, that God gave us the gift of his Son on Christmas.  A gift that doesn’t need batteries or ever wear out or get old!  When we give gifts this Christmas, why not remind ourselves that, in this small way, we are expressing God’s love and ours for the receiver.  Similarly, as we receive gifts, remind ourselves that it both God’s love and the other’s that are being expressed.

Blessed Christmas!