family | Momzoo

Around these parts we are getting ready for Christmas.

But I must make a confession.

I don’t love Christmas.

Now all you die-hard Christmas people can run me out of town with pitch forks.

I envy people who can get into the spirit of Christmas and who revel in all the preparations for the big day. There are a lot of aspects of Christmas that I do enjoy, however the parts that I don’t like seem to overshadow that good parts. My annoyance with Christmas starts the day after Thanksgiving, with black Friday. To me black Friday is consumerism at its very worse, people sitting in lines for hours to get the best deal on the latest junk. Anyway, I know a lot of people really like the hunt, but I just can’t stand it. This summer my irritation with Christmas was brought to a head when my own children started to tell me what Santa was going to bring to them. Not only was I irritated at their attitude, I was irritated by what I had created! Dadzoo and I started talking, we wanted to make Christmas more Christ focused in our home, but how does one do that when we are so entrenched in the worlds view of this Holy holiday.

(Dadzoo reading the “Giving Tree” before we decorated our Christmas tree)

Our thoughts and discussions kept coming back to the idea that we need to pare down and refocus on the love of Christ and the miracle of His birth and life. Christmas needs to be less about what Santa is going to do and more about what WE are doing for others, using Christ as our example of love, charity and service.

(punk #5 in his new favorite spot)

This doesn’t mean we are giving up Santa all together, we are just letting the myth take more of a back seat. My children are getting some well thought out, Christ centered gifts, from their Father and I, instead of a ton of toys from Santa. Our children used some of their own spending money and donated it to charities that use the money to help people in our own neighborhood with things like utility bills and groceries. Our children are not exchanging gifts, but service to each other.

I am excited about these changes, even though they are small I can feel the change in our home. I can also feel the change in my attitude about Christmas, this very holy holiday. Dadzoo and I are going to be praying and thinking over Christmas, and how our family celebrates it, over the next several years and make changes so that our home becomes on that is centered in Christ, not only everyday, but especially at Christmas time.