What Do You "Really" Want for Christmas?

          This past week our students started a new series in conjunction with the season of Advent entitled, Advent Conspiracy.  Here is a snapshot of this series, “We all want our Christmas to be a lot of things. Full of joy. Memories. Happiness. Above all, we want it to be about Jesus. What we don't want is stress. Or debt. Or feeling like we "missed the moment". Advent Conspiracy is a movement designed to help us all slow down and experience a Christmas worth remembering. But doing this means doing things a little differently. A little creatively.  It means turning Christmas upside down.”

Each week includes a discussion question/point that our parents and their students are encouraged to wrestle through together.  The first week’s discussion questions read as follows, “What word would best describe what you want to experience this year during the Christmas season?  What are some of the obstacles that get in the way of that happening?”

Christmas has always been one of those holidays that I have had a changing view about.  As a child I remember the joy that I used to feel with the anticipation of Christmas coming, the presents that were given, and the joy that was experienced.  However, as time went on I found myself seeing Christmas in a different light.  I found myself questioning why Christmas was being pushed earlier in the year every year and other holidays, like Thanksgiving, were being ignored completely.  I felt like Christmas was getting too much attention and I started having a bit of an Ebenezer Scrooge mentality towards the holiday.  However, during the Christmas season of 2009 I found myself unemployed and struggling to really celebrate the holiday the way that I thought it should be (or at least the way that I always had).  It was at this point that I was introduced to a new way of thinking about Christmas through the Advent Conspiracy.  This thought process emphasizes the need to worship fully, spend less, give more, and love all during the Christmas season.  In the coming weeks I will unpack the themes that are presented through this series after wrestling with this week’s questions I feel that the word that best describes what I want to experience during the Christmas season this year would be presence.

 
          Presence is one of those themes that emerged as a result of this study but has continued to grab at my heart strings each year.  Presence is defined as “the fact or condition of being present.”  Personally, this demonstrates the greatest type of love that a person can display because presence means that you are actually giving of your time, which is something that you can’t ever get back, and your undivided attention to a person that you care about.  How can a physical gift, that the person probably doesn’t need anyway, compare with this?  For me, I want to experience presence this Christmas season with my family through the giving our time together both on Christmas morning and through our acts of service during this holiday season and in our new house that we will be able to enjoy Christmas in this year. 

Presence is a difficult thing to attain because of the sheer busyness of the Christmas season; however as a family we are seeking to make spending time together a focus of ours this year.  Our desire is to have times and opportunities that we serve alongside each other, celebrate together, and experience the joy of family during this holiday season.  The only real barrier to experiencing the presence of each other this season would be our own decision not to celebrate this way.  As a family it takes an intentional effort not to fall into the trap of busyness and consumerism but rather to give of our presence to each other.

So as we build up to Christmas what do you desire to experience this Christmas season?  What is that one special thing that will not simply make this season tolerable but rather a celebration of our Savior’s birth?  What can you do as a family to focus on achieving this and making it a memorable experience for everyone?