When should the Christmas season start? Does not matter much. What matters is who we celebrate. It matters that we remember Christmas is about our Lord, the true Giver of Gifts. Here is a great post on just that subject.
Do we want a great Christmas? Of course! Then let us remember who it is about, and let’s be grateful, not greedy.
It seems that the Christmas season is getting longer and longer. I used to think that putting the tree up the day after Thanksgiving was making for a long Christmas celebration. But as artificial trees got more popular, it became more practical to put them up sooner and those people that make money off of Christmas found an opportunity to bombard us with Christmas cheer in the form of commercials persuading us to spend more than we have. All this was to celebrate a holiday filled more with Santa and less with Jesus. Now the Christmas hype starts as soon as the goblins hibernate at the stroke of midnight at the close of Halloween.
Thanksgiving is on the verge of being sucked into the Christmas machine. Big businesses have a hard time making a lot of money off of us being grateful for what we already have. There are billions…
View original post 880 more words
Citizen Tom
Christmas does start way too early, right after Halloween like you said! I don’t think it’s a healthy sign of culture to be honest, as I think many people like the distraction from reality it offers with the lights, decorations, shopping etc….Most certainly aren’t doing so in anticipation of celebrating Christ’s birth.
LikeLiked by 1 person
So true.
That was a great write up.
Thanks for linking to it.
🙂
A few weeks back someone told me there is a link between too much Christmas music and depression.
I’m the kind of person who listens to Christmas music in the middle of summer
(seriously, when CDs were “a thing” my Christmas compilation was on All.Year.Long),
and compared to my spouse I’m Scrooge. Christmas is his favorite holiday by far.
We’ve placed so many expectations on people and everything has become so commercialized these days I think Christmas and stress are almost synonymous.
We just had our big holiday party, and I’m exhausted. This year I made cookie cutters as a party parting gift (200 of them). Last year it was coasters (sets of two, which came to about 600 handmade coasters after discarding the rejects. Gah!)
Funny how everything is relative.
Mom was ecstatic, in her childhood, to get a tiny orange in her stocking on Christmas day.
Some folks in South Korea are happy to get actual coal!
http://app.yonhapnews.co.kr/YNA/Basic/ForeignGallery/view.aspx?lang=EN&contents_id=PYH20171121153900341
In our celebrations I try to remember the reason for the season, and count our blessings.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Forgot to add: Merry Christmas to you and yours, Tom.
I love the hat and beard illustrations. 😀
LikeLiked by 1 person
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you and yours too!
Thanks for coming by to comment. You thought are much appreciated.
LikeLike
Thanks for a great comment.
Happy to have coal for Christmas? That is what it means to be ordinary person even in this era.
What is the reason for the season? What is part of the proof Jesus is God? What He taught us works miracles in our lives. Therefore, to some of us coal does not seem to be an impressive Christmas gift.
Until the industrial revolution, most people just spent their days trying to get sufficient food, clothing and shelter to live. That is why when we read literature that predates the industrial revolution we have to understand those documents tell us only about the thinking of the elites. What ordinary men and women thought went almost unrecorded.
What is our clue? Much of the world has yet to adopt the governing principles that made the industrial revolution possible. In fact, because we have not done a good job of passing them on to the next generation, we are on the verge of canning those principles.
What are the governing principles that made the industrial revolution possible? What is our clue? During the beginnings of the industrial revolution, what consumed the thoughts of those who could read and write? The Bible.
LikeLike