The Cost of Christmas

Christmas is a costly celebration. It seems as though everyone from the lending institutions, to the counseling offices to the travel agencies makes money off Christmas. And the cost escalates each year. I read recently that if the gifts given in “The Twelve Days of Christmas” were purchased just once – from a partridge in a pear tree to a dozen drummers drumming – in today’s markets, the cost would be in excess of $19,000 plus tax. Even the eight maids would earn minimum wage for milking. I was in a church once that spent an enormous amount of money on “The Greening of Christmas.” I couldn’t help but think about the real green in their greening. Come to think of it, Christmas has never been inexpensive. Think of the cost of that first Christmas (or at least the birth of our Lord, from which we derived the Christmas celebration). There were government costs due to the required census registration, travel costs for Mary and Joseph, likewise for the shepherds and the wise men, Innkeepers costs, the cost of pigeons and doves for consecration in Jerusalem, gifts from the wise men, the cost of an unexpected trip to Egypt. And when the earthly costs are tabulated, add in the cost to the Father in the giving of His only Son to mostly ungrateful humanity. And you thought your expenses were high at Christmas! “Thanks be unto God for His indescribable gift” (2 Cor. 9:15).