November 23, 2014

• The Spirit of Christmas

  

  Residents of Reading, Pennsylvania are in a kerfuffle over the city’s “ugly” Christmas tree, with some claiming that the tree is ruining their Christmas spirit. It’s sad that anyone’s Christmas spirit is reliant on whatever decorations the city puts up. As many commenters have said, those people are missing the point. The city has already planned to replace the tree, which was itself a last minute replacement for the tree they had tagged at a local farm, but were unable to pick up because the ground was too wet to drive a heavy truck in for it. I’m not sure why there was such a rush to put up the tree before Thanksgiving, but that’s a pet peeve of mine that I won’t go into here.

  Let’s talk instead about Christmas spirit. When I was a child, Christmas spirit was Santa Claus. As soon as Thanksgiving was over, we were admonished to be good because Santa was watching. Our good behavior during the weeks leading up to Christmas was redeemed with oranges and nuts and hard candy in our stockings and a couple of presents under the tree.

  As adults, Christmas spirit is about friends, family, generosity, volunteering, and showing love to those whose lives we judge to be less blessed than ours. I say that in a non-judgmental way… it’s a good thing to feel blessed whatever your circumstances and to strive to redeem the circumstances of others. Even those who celebrate only the secular aspects of Christmas, or don’t acknowledge Christmas at all, often take the opportunity to redeem their busyness or self-involvement with acts of charity during the holidays.

  For Christians, Christmas spirit is about a savior sent by God to redeem mankind. We focus on the arrival of this God-gift at Christmas with candles and lights, trees and wreaths, carols and gift-giving. We celebrate the birth of the redeemer and put off for a little while thinking about the terrible price he would pay for our redemption, but it’s there lurking in the shape of the tree, the gifts of the magi, and the fourth verse of the carols.

  The true spirit of Christmas is redemption. We come into this world as beautiful, innocent babies and spend most of our lives piling ugliness into our thoughts and souls and bodies. Christianity embraces a savior who redeems us, transforming something ugly into something beautiful.

  And so, citizens of Reading, whether you celebrate the birth of a redeeming savior, seek to redeem your time with charitable acts, or redeem your children’s good behavior with filled stockings and gifts under the tree, I ask you to show the true spirit of Christmas by looking past the ugliness somebody has piled onto that poor tree and finding a way to redeem it instead of whining about how it’s ruining your Christmas spirit. That’s the problem with rushing into the Christmas season; people are not ready to love, serve, transform and redeem until after they’re stuffed with turkey and all the trimmings.

  Oops! I went where I said I wasn’t going to go. Mea culpa.

  • 8:52 pm
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