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The holidays are upon us. Can you feel it? The weather is getting colder, the nights are getting darker and the leaves are falling to the ground. While it’s no winter wonderland here in Fresno, we are settling in for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Just head into your local Starbucks or Target and you’ll notice red cups, Christmas music and bargains galore to excite your senses as you prepare for a season of turkey, stuffing, mistletoe and Rudolph.
The holidays are about excess and we’ve come to expect it. After spending almost $3 billion dollars on Halloween costumes and another $2.3 billion on candy[1] (which, by the way, just allowed another dentist to build his dream beach house), we are looking for a tryptophan fix. Americans will consume more than 51 million turkeys this Thanksgiving.[2]
And did I mention Christmas? We’ll spend over $52 billion dollars this year, give or take a billion.[3] We’ll decorate 33 million real Christmas trees and 9.5 million artificial trees.[4] There will be 1.76 billion candy canes produced this year[5] (even more beach houses). To-do lists, traffic jams, shopping malls, Christmas lights and family dinners will all be on the docket.
Then 2016 will arrive and we’ll wake up and realize we’re thousands of dollars in credit card debt, 15 pounds heavier and exhausted from the holiday activities.
What if we could see the next couple of months through the eyes of the gospel, thinking of compassion instead of consumption and consumerism? After all, we are celebrating Immanuel, God with us. Perhaps we could offer ourselves in some new ways this year, spending our days focused on something other than ourselves, making ourselves less busy with activities. Perhaps our money could be spent on real needs in our city instead of gifts that end up at Darrell’s Mini Storage.
It’s okay to celebrate Thanksgiving with stuffing and football. It’s not a sin to sing “Deck the Halls” and enjoy some eggnog on a cold foggy night. There’s nothing wrong with walking down Christmas Tree Lane with family and friends. But when it comes to the real meaning and purpose of celebrating the holidays, those are not the ultimate things. Rather it’s about thanksgiving offered to the Creator of the universe. It’s about a manger and the gift of God’s own son, Jesus, our Savior.
The holidays are upon us. Can you feel it? But will you feel it in a different way this year? Will you move away from a time that focuses on you and instead focuses on Christ and the world He came to save?
Download our Holiday Guide (2.3 MB PDF) for some ideas of how compassion and generosity can mark your life during the holidays. This guide will help you connect with other people in your life to live and act differently this Thanksgiving and Christmas. It will help you explore new ways to show compassion and love in your neighborhood, workplace and city.
[1] http://www.statisticbrain.com/halloween-statistics/
[2] http://www.statisticbrain.com/thanksgiving-statistics/
[3] http://www.statisticbrain.com/holiday-shopping-statistics/
[4] http://www.statisticbrain.com/christmas-tree-statistics/
[5] http://www.ehow.com/about_6464197_fun-christmas-candy.html