I don’t like Christmas.

“Wait a minute,” you might say.

“Aren’t you a Christian? Isn’t this your big holiday?”

Well, it should be. It should be filled with Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love.

It should be filled with the anticipation of the birth of the Saviour of the world.

But we’ve cheapened it to shopping, cooking, and stressing out.

We go in debt buying gifts for people to prove that we love them.

All “in the name of Jesus.”

We don’t even have the order of the celebration correct. Advent comes first – the waiting.

Christmas doesn’t even start until Christmas Day.

We’ve made it all about the material things when the greatest Gift is something we can’t buy.

So, we break our necks on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, and by Giving Tuesday, there’s nothing left to give. The order of the shopping season shows what we think about first: ourselves.

Wouldn’t it be great if we as Christians pulled the plug on the material gift giving and truly served each other? What if we took all that money that we spend on ourselves and truly put it to good use?

My 16 year old said that this year, he wants nothing for Christmas. He wants us to take whatever we would have spent on him and give it to someone in need.

Does that sound too radical?

It shouldn’t.

It’s what we’re called to, every day of our walk with Christ.

So, I challenge you this year – are you willing to give up the secular celebrations that we have so tightly woven into the holy remembrance of the birth of the Saviour?

Can you imagine what kind of world this would be if we did just that?

Just something to think about.