"To Do" at Christmas

What is it about the holidays that make us over commit? The idea is to make everything wonderful, the house, the tree, the gifts, the meals, the caroling and on and on it goes. Suddenly it is December 15 and we are exhausted with what we have done and with what we have yet to do.
What does Jesus want from us? I think that is the question we need to ask; the one truly significant question. Martha Stewart wants us to make a centerpiece dessert of cream puffs with a drizzled topping simulating icicles. The school band wants us to deliver 200 goody bags with some sweets but not too many. The kids want a gingerbread house. Spouses just want a night out together.
Jesus wants to reconcile man to God. If that was his purpose then when we celebrate his arrival shouldn’t we be promoting His agenda, reconciling man to God? Now that is a huge one to put on the “to do” list. Gifts for the teachers, Home Depot for Daddy, visit the nursing home, donate to the needy and reconcile man to God. I don’t feel less overwhelmed with that added to the list.
That is the point of course. Reconciling man to God is not one more thing to add to the list. It is the list. Each item on the “to do” list should be held up and compared to this ideal. Is buying a new sliding, compound, miter saw for my husband a step in the path to reconciling man to God? Maybe, if done with a charitable heart and as a symbol of a love so deep I’ll give him the tools to tear out the bathroom, because that’s how God made him. How about hanging all those Christmas lights? Reconciliation between the creator and the created? For me, that one is harder to figure out. How does that bring anyone closer to God, closer to divorce maybe, but closer to God? Of course, each one of us must discern what activity speaks to our soul; which move us and our families closer to God.
Over the years I have simplified Christmas in my house. I don’t send Christmas cards. My theory on decoration is “less is more”. Christmas baking is at the whim of what anyone wants at any given time. Gifts for music teachers and Sunday school teachers and school teachers have become what I can find at the Church bookstore or a gift card. I’ve stopped trying so hard to make it perfect. Friends and acquaintances sometimes howl that those things must be done. I try to remember that Jesus didn’t live his life according to the rules of the community. He ate with lepers so I can probably skip the Christmas cards.
For the last two years I have declined all Christmas parties that did not include the whole family. Even the ones that everyone told me were a must. My reasoning is that if the “to do” list of Christmas is really to bring mankind into a closer relationship with God then the first place for me to start is with my children, the two little parts of mankind God gave me to raise for these few years. Christmas parties will always be there, the children will not. Instead of attending another party to benefit the needy I tend to my own children’s needs. I teach them about Christ through loving them fully, through spending time with them. Sometimes loving the children in an unhurried, unharried way is a circular path right back to traditional Christmas activities. Sometimes we bake cookies, sometimes we decorate the tree, sometimes we just roast marshmallows, even if it means turning the air conditioning down low enough to justify a fire. I make my donations to the needy and Toys for Tots and the food pantry but I don’t need to go to a party to do it.
This year the kids are older and have some activities they want to do on their own so I may go to a party or two. They want to skip the parade but go ice skating. Nothing is written in stone. A more relaxed Christmas where we try to love as Christ loved is the goal and in the end is the gift we all want and need.

Blessings,
Michelle