Christmas - The Real Meaning

Christmas is probably one of the greatest times ofThis is supposed to be a celebration, yes. But the
the year for people of the Christian faith. It's one ofcelebration is supposed to be about the King of
those rare holidays that actually starts long beforeKings, not about giving presents and watching
the day begins. In the weeks leading up to Christmas,"Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer" for the
usually right after Thanksgiving, Christians begin theirone-hundredth time. It's not about stuffing ourselves
shopping and decorating. The tree goes up, thewith turkey and Christmas cookies. It's about giving
nativity scenes go up and the shopping sprees allthanks for God giving Christians his only son, our Lord
over the globe take up hours of their day.And thenand Savior.Yes, many of us have lost the real
the actually day comes, which begins the nightmeaning of Christmas. It's so easy to do with all the
before with Christmas Eve services and caroling outcommercialism of the day. Much of the problem is
in the streets. After that the gifts get placed underthe media. Children put on the TV and see all these
the tree and the milk and cookies go out for Santa.ads for toys and seeing Santa live at some shopping
On Christmas morning the gifts get opened by all themall and that's all they can think about. And how do
wide eyed children, followed by a yummy Christmasyou tell your five year old that Christmas is not
breakfast. Later on everyone goes to theabout Santa and Toys? How do you tell him it's not
grandparents to have a big Christmas dinner with allabout Christmas trees, eggnog and watching
the trimmings. More presents are exchanged.Christmas movies about characters that don't even
Everyone laughs and sings and has a wonderfulexist?The truth is, it doesn't have to be all or nothing.
time.When the night ends we all go home, have aWe don't have to prevent our children from having
few last Christmas cookies and finally, after a longthe things at Christmas that they look forward to. All
day of partying and having a jolly time, we go towe need to do is make sure that some time during
bed.And with all of that, you can count the numberthe day, we sit down with our children and teach
of times the name Jesus was mentioned on onethem the real meaning of Christmas. Read the
hand and have about four fingers left over. The onlyChristmas story to them from the Bible, or from a
prayer of the day was probably grace at dinner.Thisgood children's book about the subject. Make them
isn't exactly what the apostles had in mind. Itunderstand that Christmas is an important day, not
certainly isn't what Jesus himself had in mind.Thebecause we get gifts, but because God gave us the
truth is, many of us have lost the real meaning ofgreatest gift of all.
Christmas, the birth of the Christian's Lord and Savior.