Merry Christmas -- Strike that! -- Merry Kitchmas!
Well, I have to admit it. I have reached my breaking point when it comes to all of the tat that is out there being called Christmas decorations. All of those stupid blow-up decorations for your lawn, the roof of your house, wherever you wind up putting them, are beyond the realm of getting on my nerves now. They are just tacky. Tacky. Tacky. Tacky. Tacky.
When I went to a local home improvement store today and saw approximately twenty different choices for those atrocities, most lined up on the topmost shelf, all vying for my attention, waiting for someone to waste their electricity on them, and someone to actually go through the effort to purchase them (waste of dollars), take them home (waste of effort) and put them up somewhere (waste of space) and plug them in (why bother?), I just shook my head in wonder.
"I have to admit something," I told my eldest son, "Christmas is getting tacky."
If it's not the outside blow-ups that beckon us to clutter our yards with them, it's the inside decorations that sit on our coffee tables, sideboards, hutches, pianos, or down the length of our hallways, up our stairs and over the banisters that play tinny sounding Christmas tunes, spinning, lighting up, or having some other sort of kitch to catch our attention that makes me crazy. Tacky. Totally Tacky. Tacky. Tacky. Tacky.
When did we turn Christmas into the holiday of kitch? When did it turn into the "National Day of Yard Blow-Ups, Noisy Indoor Decorations, and time to take about ten Tylenols®"? When did Christmas become a holiday that is so distracted with nonsense that we forget to focus on the real Reason for the Season? I mean, with all of this crappy kitch, who needs a Reason for the Season? Who needs anything besides the ability to do more decorations that take more power and require more aspirin?
When did Christmas become "Kitchmas"?
Christmas has been commercial forever. People buy things that they think will make their little Johnies and Janies happy; and that's not a bad thing. It's good for the economy, it's good for the family, and it's good for the idea of giving at Christmas time. I think it's good to remind people that it's not all about the Barbie Super Fabulous Corvette with extenda-antenna for a cell phone that works with the walkie-talkie Janie gets to use. But a present or two too many is not the same thing as making Christmas into Kitchmas.
Christmas is supposed to be about something. An important something. Something so important that it changed the course of humanity forever. A Savior was born in a manger, of a virgin, and He came to be sacrificed for you and I and for Janie and Johnnie. That is what Christmas is all about. Celebrating Christ's birth is what it used to mean. Not how many blow-up decorations you can squeeze into the square footage of your yard. Not how many songs you can play simultaneously on the Christmas village that decorates every horizontal surface of your interior. It's about Christ and the fact that "God so loved the world [you and I and everyone else] that He gave His only Begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish but shall have everlasting life."
And for that, we choose to celebrate with blow-up decorations?
Where is your sense of proportion? Where is your sense of reverence? Where is your sense of awe? Or is all of that gone and focused instead on the fact that Danny down the street has Snoopy and Linus skating on fake ice in their side yard and you don't have that particular blow-up decoration yet? Well, I'm sure the Lord's birth would be unable to be celebrated without you having that.
America, wake up. Start remembering the Season's Reason: Christ is born! He isn't blown-up with a fan that plugs in at the side. He was born of a virgin, in a manger, lived a sinless life and died on a cross for you and for all of the wrong things all of us have ever done. Then you know what He did? He rose again so that we might have life eternal. That's what Christmas is all about.
Christmas is supposed to be about being grateful for the ultimate Gift: the Gift of Love, Acceptance, Purity, Sacrifice, Obedience (even unto death) and Forgiveness. For that is all encompassed in the story of Christmas. "For God so LOVED the World that He gave His only Begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish but shall have everlasting life."
Did you get that?
God LOVED you enough to send His Only Begotten Son — LOVE
God ACCEPTED you enough to include you — ACCEPTANCE
God's Son lived a Sinless life — PURITY
God loved you enough to GIVE His Son in your stead — SACRIFICE
God's Son OBEYED His Father even unto death — OBEDIENCE
God's Son DIED on a cross for you so that your sins could be FORGIVEN — FORGIVENESS
God did all of this for you. Jesus Christ did all of this for you. And blow-up lawn ornaments celebrate that?
Did you get the one of the Cross?
When I went to a local home improvement store today and saw approximately twenty different choices for those atrocities, most lined up on the topmost shelf, all vying for my attention, waiting for someone to waste their electricity on them, and someone to actually go through the effort to purchase them (waste of dollars), take them home (waste of effort) and put them up somewhere (waste of space) and plug them in (why bother?), I just shook my head in wonder.
"I have to admit something," I told my eldest son, "Christmas is getting tacky."
If it's not the outside blow-ups that beckon us to clutter our yards with them, it's the inside decorations that sit on our coffee tables, sideboards, hutches, pianos, or down the length of our hallways, up our stairs and over the banisters that play tinny sounding Christmas tunes, spinning, lighting up, or having some other sort of kitch to catch our attention that makes me crazy. Tacky. Totally Tacky. Tacky. Tacky. Tacky.
When did we turn Christmas into the holiday of kitch? When did it turn into the "National Day of Yard Blow-Ups, Noisy Indoor Decorations, and time to take about ten Tylenols®"? When did Christmas become a holiday that is so distracted with nonsense that we forget to focus on the real Reason for the Season? I mean, with all of this crappy kitch, who needs a Reason for the Season? Who needs anything besides the ability to do more decorations that take more power and require more aspirin?
When did Christmas become "Kitchmas"?
Christmas has been commercial forever. People buy things that they think will make their little Johnies and Janies happy; and that's not a bad thing. It's good for the economy, it's good for the family, and it's good for the idea of giving at Christmas time. I think it's good to remind people that it's not all about the Barbie Super Fabulous Corvette with extenda-antenna for a cell phone that works with the walkie-talkie Janie gets to use. But a present or two too many is not the same thing as making Christmas into Kitchmas.
Christmas is supposed to be about something. An important something. Something so important that it changed the course of humanity forever. A Savior was born in a manger, of a virgin, and He came to be sacrificed for you and I and for Janie and Johnnie. That is what Christmas is all about. Celebrating Christ's birth is what it used to mean. Not how many blow-up decorations you can squeeze into the square footage of your yard. Not how many songs you can play simultaneously on the Christmas village that decorates every horizontal surface of your interior. It's about Christ and the fact that "God so loved the world [you and I and everyone else] that He gave His only Begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish but shall have everlasting life."
And for that, we choose to celebrate with blow-up decorations?
Where is your sense of proportion? Where is your sense of reverence? Where is your sense of awe? Or is all of that gone and focused instead on the fact that Danny down the street has Snoopy and Linus skating on fake ice in their side yard and you don't have that particular blow-up decoration yet? Well, I'm sure the Lord's birth would be unable to be celebrated without you having that.
America, wake up. Start remembering the Season's Reason: Christ is born! He isn't blown-up with a fan that plugs in at the side. He was born of a virgin, in a manger, lived a sinless life and died on a cross for you and for all of the wrong things all of us have ever done. Then you know what He did? He rose again so that we might have life eternal. That's what Christmas is all about.
Christmas is supposed to be about being grateful for the ultimate Gift: the Gift of Love, Acceptance, Purity, Sacrifice, Obedience (even unto death) and Forgiveness. For that is all encompassed in the story of Christmas. "For God so LOVED the World that He gave His only Begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish but shall have everlasting life."
Did you get that?
God LOVED you enough to send His Only Begotten Son — LOVE
God ACCEPTED you enough to include you — ACCEPTANCE
God's Son lived a Sinless life — PURITY
God loved you enough to GIVE His Son in your stead — SACRIFICE
God's Son OBEYED His Father even unto death — OBEDIENCE
God's Son DIED on a cross for you so that your sins could be FORGIVEN — FORGIVENESS
God did all of this for you. Jesus Christ did all of this for you. And blow-up lawn ornaments celebrate that?
Did you get the one of the Cross?
I agree. It's all about spend spend spend. Consumers have to buy more stuff every year or Christmas is a bust. This year the Grinch (Wall Street) has payed a visit to all of the Who's (Joe the plumber) down in Whoville. Maybe we can get back to basics and enjoy Christmas for what it is. Not what Madison Avenue says it is.
Unlike the Grinch however, I don't think Wall Street's heart will grow much. For them everything, including Christmas, is about greed.
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I think Wall Street had some help with this one. The Democrats not allowing oversight and more regulations on Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac and all those other subprime loans were no help to the American economy. That's the problem with being a bunch of followers: you follow people into the jaws of hades. Europe (England, France, Iceland, etc.) have been doing this for years. The "elites" in America seem to think that if Europe does it, we must do so too; no matter what the "it" is.
I watched a panel show on this thing a few days after the whole thing blew up and came to light. On it was Simon Johnson, from MIT, and he said one thing that made me more comfortable. He said that even though Europe has done this for years and England as well, that this is America's first time, Europe never changes. They refuse to stop doing it and they refuse to do the right thing. At least, with America, you can always count on America doing the right thing, sooner or later. He said we learn from our mistakes and Europe never does.
That made me feel more comfortable about this whole stupid, unnecessary financial fiasco. And it made me proud of America that at least one (British) MIT professor could see that and say it truthfully about us.
As to the Grinch coming this year... Well, he may not be here yet, but it's going to be up to the parents who are really feeling this to be creative and come up with ways to make things a Merry Christmas anyways. They can have small gift hidden throughout the house to play "Hunt the Present" with, they can have fewer gifts, but let them open one ever two hours throughout the day, or they can have a day focused on playing with the children with what toys they do get so that the child feels more important than the gift. I think the Grinch's appearance in any house is dependent upon the adults of the house doing what it takes to make the gifts less important and the Reason for the Season more important, the children of the house feel focused on and the Joy of the Season brought home via the adults making the effort to make the children smile. I don't care how many gifts are under the tree as long as the child gets something to laugh about that day. Every day is Christmas if we focus on the child and we focus on making that child's day happy.
Bake Christmas cookies with your child on Christmas day. Read aloud to and with them. Have a "present hunt". Have a day of outdoor activities (egg in the spoon races, three legged races, water balloon fights if it's warm enough). Do something to make it special and I bet you a buck and a half that any child will look at this potentially Grinch-y Christmas as one of the best Christmases ever.
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