Christmas Traditions

You can tell it's December -- aside from the cold and snow, that is. Not to forget the plethora ("plethora" -- what a word, eh?) of papers that are all due within the next two weeks, signalling the near-end of my semester and sure-fire end of my sanity due to the sleep-deprivation experiment that we call "term papers".

The bad side of the yearly traditions is the re-emergence of the Christmas Whiners -- maybe you've met them? They whine and rant about the commercialism of Christmas and how much they hate the plasticity of giving gifts to people once a year when we should be loving all year long, blah, blah, blah. They sound like some sort of the modern-day equivalent of Ebenezer Scrooge.

I like Christmas! Sure, some people have commercialized the life out of it, but those people don't tell me how to think, how to shop, or how to celebrate with my family. I choose for myself how to celebrate Christmas, and if I like to give extra gifts to the ones I love once a year (besides their birthdays), that's still my choice.

Yesterday, the Clan McAlpine did one of our yearly traditions on the first day of December: putting up the tree. Listening to the soundtrack of "Charlie Brown's Christmas" on CD while we decorated the tree. Watching some of the classic Christmas videos that we keep in a box with the ornaments and bring out only once a year.

Above all that -- doing these things with my family, enjoying the relationships that God has given us, and being thankful that, no matter how chaotic and unsettling life around us can be (and usually is, in our household!), we have each other.

Oh, and lest we forget, remembering to be thankful to God for the gift of His Son Jesus, regardless of whether He was "really" born on December 25th or not. Sometimes, we miss the "main and the plain" of Christmas because we're too focused on side issues like commercialism or anti-commercialism, or TERM PAPERS! Oh no, I should be working on TERM PAPERS...

That's one tradition I look forward to renouncing...