I'm sure that I'm not the only person in the world to get depressed at Christmas. And hopefully, I'm not the only one who gets depressed over the overwhelming consumerism during this time. My favorite holiday is Thanksgiving. The time to sit down over good food and spend quality time with family. In my heart, I believe that's what Christmas should be. My favorite part of Christmas is when we drive over to my in-law's house for a wonderful dinner and just spend time with them.
You see, I'm blessed with a wonderful mother- and father-in-law. They're wonderful, loving and caring people. It's always a joy to spend time with them.
Tonight, I think I figured out why I get so depressed at Christmas. It's all the gifts that people buy. You see, no matter what we buy, we can never compete with the greatest gift of all. On Christmas Day, God sent to earth his beloved son to live among us. He set into motion the plan for our eternal salvation. There is absolutely nothing that we can buy that can compete with that. Oddly enough, gifts from the heart come closer to encompassing that ideal than anything else. For God's gift was definitely one from the heart. As it says in John 3:16, "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son..."
All the pretty wrapping paper, all the bows, all the pretty decorated trees, all the credit card debt and stress in the upcoming year when that first credit card bill arrives, that means absolutely nothing. If we'd just embrace the fact that we can't compete with the gift we've already been given and stop with the unending consumerism at Christmas, we'd be much happier people.
That reminds me of one Christmas we had awhile back. Money was really tight and we knew that we couldn't get the kids very much. So I had everyone in the house pick one special dessert each. I then proceeded to make them, one after the other, as a special gift. That holds the special memories. Not the presents under the tree that year.
This year, we're blessed financially to provide a good Christmas. As a matter of fact, the gifts are already purchased and many of them are high-end electronics. For some reason, every time I think of them, I get depressed. I miss that Christmas where the 'gift' was homemade goodies. I'm trying to decide if I'm "brave" enough to declare a "no gift" Christmas. We have 4 boys. Would they understand celebrating what God gave us over buying gifts for the tree? Would they understand if I was more willing to give them nicer gifts on their birthday instead? I doubt it. But the idea holds so much appeal to me. We actually took and cut way back on Christmas gifts a few years ago. The kids didn't mind it then. They each get maybe one or 2 special gifts and that's all. For awhile, that kept me happy. Now, I want to cut back even more. Maybe that's asking too much out of the kids.
Maybe I'll chalk it up to my normal Christmas depression. Add in the fact that Dad can't be here this year and it's just miserable. A very important part of my family is missing and it's just hard. Though, I still would like to make Christmas more about Christ, just like it should be. I'll think about it next year, when, hopefully, my family will be whole again. Though we did all agree, if we could trade in every single Christmas present for Dad, we all would in a heartbeat. I wish it was that easy.
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