The Sameness of Christmas

I’ve celebrated eight decades of Christmas and much of it is just not the same anymore.  Trips to share the festivities with grandparents accompanied with backyard football and afternoon singing around the piano, have evolved into being the grandparent, listening to Christmas music on the radio and watching football on TV.  The smell of a freshly cut tree decorated with homemade popcorn strings and newly painted eggshells has long since given way to an artificial tree that spends eleven months of the year in the attic. The annual trip to see Santa Claus in the lobby of Sears & Roebuck, has been shortened since he is now  in every store, and although he used to be seen throughout the Christmas parade, now he is relegated to the final float. Part of the excitement of Christmas Day was opening packages to see what gifts we had received, but now it’s about watching others open gifts in hopes they like what they received.  On and on we could go sharing both the good and bad changes of Christmas, but eventually we’d have to pause to celebrate the sameness of the season. Even though some theologians have told us Jesus wasn’t born in December because Shepherds wouldn’t have been “keeping watch over their flock by night” in the winter (Luke 2:8), we celebrate the Savior, not the season. While professional commercials will try to give us images of the “happy holidays,” we know it is about God giving us His only begotten Son (John 3:16). So let the changes come and go but celebrate the sameness of Christmas.