Posted by Helen on: 12.23.2008 /
I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas/holiday.
By the way Todd (pastor of my ex-church) posted a few of the Christmas survey responses received here. One of them looks familiar (no, it’s not mine!)
If you get bored you can ask Satan questions here (or maybe this is a grumpy impostor and not Satan - who knows…)
Comment by: Jason Horton
1Oh dear, my throw away grump is on display.
Comment by: Eliza
2Merry Christmas! (Or, insert whatever greeting each of you uses this time of year.)
Boy, the “tag cloud” at Todd’s site is interesting - and distracting, and a bit vertigo-inducing!
I’ve been thinking more about what Christmas would look like (be like) without the trappings which don’t seem to have any relation to the actual Christmas story. (Maybe those could all be saved up for another day, close by.)
Seems like there wouldn’t be:
1) So many gifts, & all that shopping and sense of obligation.
2) Santa Claus, sled, reindeer, elves, North Pole. Stockings.
3) Candy canes, decorated cookies, fruitcakes. Big dinner featuring ham or turkey or roast beef.
4) Decorated trees. Wreaths. Poinsettas. Misteltoe. Yule logs.
5) Snow motifs - snowmen, snowflakes, dreaming of a white Christmas.
6) Many traditional Christmas carols. Bells. Muzak in stores.
7) Christmas cards, especially those which extoll the family’s accomplishments that year.
8) A federal holiday.
What would a celebration of the birth of Jesus & “the Christmas story” feature?
I’ve been mulling this over; Excuse my literalness over the features of the Christmas story, but that’s all I have to go on:
a) Quiet, reflective celebration amidst family & church? On Christmas eve, or evening? A very small meal, or even fasting for one night? (no room in the inn…what would Mary & Joseph have had to eat?)
b) A few small but “precious” gifts…for Jesus (what would that mean)? for the church? for young children?
c) Visits to, and meaningful help for, people who are staying in “the stable”, that is who are living places that most people don’t live on purpose - the homeless, people in shelters, people in tents, refugees?
d) Visits to, and meaningful help for, pregnant women and women with newborns, in difficult circumstances? Shelters, jail, poverty, etc?
e) Protection for people (esp. children) who are at risk of being targeted & killed by their government? (Obviously not a one-day effort, I know.)
…and then, pardon me, but these less serious ideas come unbidden:
- a celebration of astronomy
- a celebration of IVF (one’s own chance to conceive without intercourse - OK I know that one is really lame, and anyway that should be done 9 months before Xmas)
- a celebration of Middle Eastern kings
OK, it’s time for bed. Once again, merry christmas to all!
Comment by: Helen
3Jason, I liked your Christmas Survey comments :)
Eliza, I’ve reposted your Christmas thoughts here (Anyone responding to Eliza, please do so on the new post)