Are You Ready for Christmas?
Are you ready for Christmas? Well, maybe you should be. After all, you’ve had plenty of time to prepare. Advertisers began hawking their Christmas wares weeks before Thanksgiving, and to further get you in the holiday mood a number of Christmas movies have aired on television these past several weeks. On top of that, you can’t enter a grocery store, restaurant, or Walmart without hearing Christmas music. Even my car dealership is playing Santa Claus Is Coming to Town on their sound system! And Christmas doesn’t stop there. Every time I go to the mailbox, I pull out countless magazines offering a variety of Christmas candies, Christmas pastries, and Christmas food products that are “guaranteed to please,” as one distributor so proudly boasts. For months now we have been inundated with Christmas.
But are you ready for Christmas?
It seems that every year the Christmas season arrives a little sooner than the year before. I’m quite sure that the time has not passed equally for children and their parents. For children, the wait has probably seemed like an eternity. For parents, on the other hand, the days have flown by, and it may feel like Thanksgiving was only last week.
Hopefully, by now the Christmas cards have been mailed, although, truth be told, my wife and I have received Christmas cards from friends as late as the middle of January that were postmarked a week or so after Christmas! But surely, even for the most dedicated procrastinators, the trees have been set in their stands and strung with lights and ornaments, empty stockings have been hung by the chimney or placed under the tree, and even a few gifts have been wrapped. The Christmas menu has been carefully planned, and holiday goodies in candy dishes have been scattered throughout the house in strategic areas so that when watching bowl games, the snack dish is within easy reach. Oh, the curse of this time of the year when extra inches are added to our waistline!
But are you ready for Christmas?
Andy Williams rhapsodized that Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year, and for many, it is. My brother loved Christmas. He was born on Christmas Day, and found it especially meaningful that he and Jesus shared the same birthday. I didn’t have the heart to tell him that Jesus was probably born in the spring of the year. The business community loves Christmas, too, as a large part of their profits are made during the Yuletide season. Charitable organizations, such as the Salvation Army, receive their largest share of donations during this time of the year. And church attendance picks up as adult and children choirs perform their Christmas performances, and even marginal believers drift back to church, nostalgically longing to recover fading memories that once filled them with hope. There is indeed a lot to like about this festive season.
But are you ready for Christmas?
You may be surprised to learn that in America, according to some surveys, Christmas is not the nation’s favorite holiday. That honor belongs to Thanksgiving and in second place, just behind Thanksgiving, is Memorial Day. Surprisingly, Christmas follows Memorial Day as America’s third favorite holiday!
One thing I’m sure of, though, Christmas is the favorite holiday of children. The emphasis on Santa Claus, gifts and toys, and the break from school all add a sense of excitement to this winter holiday. For many people, perhaps most people, the jolly man in a red suit is the central focus of Christmas. And there is nothing wrong with these festive traditions, as they serve as important distractions from the day-to-day humdrum of life. All of us need breaks from the routines of existence and the holiday season provides a time to relax and enjoy a lighter side.
But are you ready for Christmas?
It is an important question for it would be unfortunate indeed if you were to miss Christmas. In spite of the holiday atmosphere, these merry days with lights, music, food, and friendship will not in themselves insure that you are ready for Christmas. You can enjoy the festivities with friends and family, but if that is all the preparation you do for this season of the year, you will slide right past these holidays without ever having experienced Christmas.
To be ready for Christmas requires a certain attitude—a sacrificial spirit, an openness and receptivity that welcomes God’s presence. There is nothing magical about that. It begins with a simple act of faith, not all that different from Mary’s response to God in the Bible’s book of Luke. In the story, an angelic messenger came to the Virgin Mary and announced that God had chosen her to be the bearer of God’s presence in the world. Mary didn’t understand all that was happening, but trusted God, and said simply, “May it be to me as you have said” (Lk. 2:38). The young girl became the paradigm of faith by welcoming God into her life, without complete understanding.
To get ready for Christmas means to welcome God’s presence into your world. That is easier said than done. You may have a ton of unanswered questions and doubts that you can’t resolve. Then, too, you can become so distracted by all the pageantry of the holiday season that you never get around to making room for the Holy. If you allow yourself to be so consumed by the bright lights, mushy sentimentality, and spectacular trappings of the secular Christmas, you risk leaving no room for the Good News of great joy. Or if you do leave space, it is only a tiny corner that you seldom ever pay attention to or visit, but as the Virgin Mary would surely testify, being filled with God’s presence has a subtle way of occupying every space in your life.
I deeply regret the times in my life when I missed Christmas. It wasn’t because I failed to put up a Christmas tree or buy gifts for loved ones. It wasn’t because I missed out on Christmas dinner with family and friends. It wasn’t even because I didn’t enjoy the music and holiday festivities.
I missed Christmas because I failed to prepare. I was so busy with the trappings of Christmas that I lost sight of the gift—the gift of God’s holy presence who quietly, sometimes almost imperceptibly, enters into the lives of those who humbly welcome him.
Are you ready for Christmas?
