So here we go again.
Friday launched what should be a season known for
peace
love
joy
hope
as we worship a God who cared so much He comes to earth.
However, it seems this is a bit more typical of the season. The video below shows a man being trampled at a Target store in Buffalo, New York, this past Friday.
Friends, I just don’t get it. For a discount? To save a few bucks?
Really?
I would love to hear what you guys are doing this year to make sure you keep your focus on the purpose of Christmas.
I think as a community of Christ followers we could all use the encouragement/ideas if we’re going to get this Christmas right.
Thoughts?
We intentionally slow our entire family during this season. With our kids we use a Jesse Tree…check out this free resource from Ann Voskamp: http://www.aholyexperience.com/2010/11/free-jesse-tree-advent-devotional-book/
It’s difficult to not get caught up in the spend more, buy more, have more that seems to permeate everything during the Christmas season. I want to teach our little ones to give more without expecting in return, to give of themselves not just out of their piggy banks. It’s difficult, but we are trying.
We started the Jesse Tree a few years ago and love it!
Every night I read to Ethan (6) when I tuck him into bed. We just started reading Matthew 1. The questions that Ethan asked me was awesome. We ended up getting in trouble with mom because were up late talking about it.
That is insane.
I know. Really makes me sad.
Our church community just finished participating in Operation Christmas Child. We are also helping a local organization provide clothing for one of the local schools that has more than its share of very low income families. we are also helping fill back packs with snacks and other easy to make foods for the Christmas break. With all of this, we chose not to be involved in Living Water International this year. next year it is planned.
Such a sad example of what our world can be like! It breaks my heart to see such greed and selfishness. Just think if all those people chose, instead, to help others what a difference it could make in so many lives.
I don’t normally put my ambitions out for public knowledge, knowing that if I fail not only will it make me feel bad, but ridiculed by others for being a failure, but this is my plan:
Usually this time of year I pick up extra work in retail, having an unpaid month off from my regular job. This year I am not going to work, but use that time to serve others. As I pretty much live paycheck to paycheck this is a huge thing for me to do, but I am trusting in God to see me through this time and provide for me not only financially, but in my spiritual growth!
That’s beautiful!
Love it!!!!
Last year my wife & I decided that instead of just buying things that people want, that whatever we bought had to have a larger purpose behind it, you know other than entertainment, fashion or what have you.
So, last year everything we bought either helped the person who received it spiritually, came from an non-profit to help someone on the other side of the planet support their family, or (this our favorite) helped provide resources to get girls out of the sex-slave trade. Even though we probably spent a little more than we would have had we just bought the things people wanted, it was incredibly refreshing to focus on helping others at this time of the year rather than trying to find another sweater to take up space in someone’s closet.
And yes, we’ve decided to make that a tradition.
My husband and I don’t give each other gifts, we give the money to a ministry or person in need.
We developed an Advent Devotion book and Experiential Calendar in the college ministry I lead, so I will be going through that book and making every effort to live out the daily Experiential activities (everything from giving up social media for a day to making amends with someone whom I’ve had a falling out).
I’m also reading through YouVersion’s “Rediscovering the Christmas Season” Bible reading plan and will be taking part in Advent Conspiracy.
Typically, I stay out of the stores around Christmas. I give to Operation Christmas child. I help a food bank by finding people willing to give up extras from their pantry. If a neighbor is in need I see what they need and if I cant fund it I talk to members of my church. I also shop at thrift stores during the year to avoid shopping at Christmas.
My daughter and I always participate in Samaritan’s Purse filling shoeboxes. We do a few boxes ourselves and then volunteer at the depot in our city helping to fill other boxes and assisting where needed. My daughter is only 9 but I know that doing this small part is instilling something wonderful in her heart. She can see a need and help to fill it.
I think this is one of the reasons I question Christmas. Don’t get me wrong, I love Jesus and to celebrate His birth is a beautiful thing. I just don’t like what it’s become. Breaks my heart.
This year, I’m buying a 24 gift cards and walking around the store every day in December and asking God to guide me to who needs them in the store. I can’t wait!
Great idea Karen.
This broke my heart. The people who actually jumped over and then the people coming back to the doors to get other literally pull others over the man laying on the ground. SERIOUSLY? There are NO deals, and NO amount of money saved that makes that okay.
This year we are adopting a single mom and her 2 kids. My kids can’t wait to go shopping for her kids. We also serve at our church food pantry.
I am going to check out the Jesse Tree.
That is sad.
The crazy thing is on average, black friday shoppers spent $300…now that is sad.
Pete,
My SIL now belongs to the United Church of Christ, and they celebrate the Feasts instead of Christmas (and Easter, etc). At first I didn’t get it at all. But, in already knowing that Christmas really isn’t Jesus’ birthday, and that Dec. 25th was designated as such (by the Catholic Church?) in order to devert the pagans’ attention away from the birthday of their false God (was it Greek mythology?), I’m starting to wonder about all the selfishness and greed that surrounds the holiday season! I know that I could be confusing some things here, and we still celebrate Christmas in our home, but my SIL explained that her church believes Christmas Day is used by Satan to trick believers (is this true?).
Anyways, all this to say that days like Black Friday make me wonder…too crazy!
Stacy
I don’t know if I would say that Satan uses Christmas Day to trick believers. In fact, I do believe that there are some amazing things about Christmas and for many people it does help them refocus and celebrate the birth of Christ. However, I think we tend to get all caught up in the cultural pressures and miss what it’s really all about.
I couldn’t bring myself to watch, Pete, but I can just imagine. The human condition can look pretty sad and pitiful.
And yet, imagine that some of those in the crowd were not there pushing and pressing on Target’s doors out of greed or out-of-control consumerism but instead out of a desire to finally get something right for a loved one they are distant or estranged from.
There are broken families that strain at this time of year to (in some small way) try to heal the wounds of the past. Maybe the guy in the blue stocking hat and sweatshirt hood is a dad with mistakes-a-plenty in his history. Maybe he’s trying to get one gift he can afford that will say to a child he can’t see very often, “You know kid, I know I’ve made a mess of things, but I hope this X-Box (or whatever) gives you some sense that I really, really do love you and I’m sorry for all the grief I’ve caused our family.”
I see the pain and the sadness and the emptiness and I long for all God’s children to be drawn to Him so they can find relief and forgiveness and newness of life.
We know the answer to emptiness isn’t found in presents and possessions. But how often do we (who know better) drift toward such things ourselves instead of waiting on the giver of all good gifts to fill us? And if we are so easily gone astray, how much easier is it for those still adrift from Him?
Reach the lost at any cost. That is the answer. Judge with the same level of mercy and compassion with which you would have yourself judged. There but for the grace of God go I.
As for what our family is doing to focus on the real meaning of the season? We’re building a list of invites to a special Christmas celebration.
Thank you for a very grace filled answer. It’s sad to see people pushing each other like that but I can’t judge them, I pity them. And maybe it’s not greed but simply the pressure to give everyone a gift so they think they have to hit all the sales. Pressure to live up to others expectations can make you do some pretty mean things. I love Christmas time because it celebrates my Savior’s birth. But it’s sometimes easy to lose that focus, I know I have before. Praying that all Christ followers remember why we celebrate Christmas and be a light to the world not condemning them for living like the world has trained them. Let’s show them a better way through grace, love, kindness, and God’s truth.
First of all, we don’t do any Black Friday shopping. At all. Our family really enjoys looking through the World Vision Gift Catalog and shopping for others.
A couple years ago my church looked at the Biblically historical context leading up to Christ’s birth. Knowing that history has changed how I see the Advent season. It helped me really understand the expectation and hope for a Messiah, and what that gift meant. I was raised in a traditional church that celebrated Advent, but the churches I have been a part of as an adult do not. Since that sermon series I have built things into my life through this season to create some meaning and expectation every day. It may be a practice from one of the Jewish feasts/traditions, reading a Christmas story, celebrating community with friends, taking a drive to enjoy the beauty of the decorations against the blackness of the night, or a quiet evening before a fire where I can reflect and renew. The one thing I avoid is the mall because the frenzy and commercialism there can sap the Spirit faster than anything else for me.
This is one thing I am doing.
http://carusophotography.com/helpportrait/
Youversion.com has a Christmas reading plan….takes 25 days and pieces together different bible stories to really put together who Jesus is and why we really celebrate and rejoice this season!
Rediscover the Christmas Season with a 25 day YouVersion Christmas Story Reading Plan. http://bit.ly/dEPsAy
You’re the second person to mention this. I’m going to check it out!!
I promised myself that this year I wouldn’t get stressed out with the have to buys and the have to go to and/or have to does.
Every time I saw that video on the news, I cringed! I had the same thought… all of that for a discount. Not. Worth. It.
Focusing on being generous w the intangible gifts: compassion, warmth, connecting, encouraging…
It’s the ultimate irony that Black Friday is the day after we’re supposed to be thankful for what we have…
We try to distance ourselves as much as possible from commercial Christmas. We celebrate Advent to the fullest, Jesse Tree devotions, lighting the candle(s) every night, and singing Advent hymns – to surround ourselves enough to enter in to the season of waiting. We usually wait until about 7-10 days before Christmas to put up a tree (but we leave it up all 12 days of Christmas, until Epiphany). Our kids get 3 gifts each, at least one being handmade or a book (to deemphasize gifts) and we give to organizations we care about as a family.
We’re celebrating Christ who has come and is coming, and the good gifts he gives us. That should be our litmus test when we decide what to do or how to do it.
One more thing, we’re having a really lean year, and it’s neat to see how little we have to change because money has never played a very big part in our Christmas.
That video is disturbing but what is more disturbing to me is the fact that I attended the National Youth Workers convention last Sunday at the Nashville Arena and we were almost trampled by youth workers trying to get in the door for evening worship. REALLY PEOPLE!
This is so ridiculous. It makes me mad and sad at the same time. What are these selfish people living for?! It’s not worth it! I hate shopping on Black Friday, so I stay in and hang with the family, read, and watch movies or work on projects at home.
We just constantly remind our kids what Christmas is about. Gifts are kept to a minimum and we focus on others. These past couple of years have been really hard financially so we have been forced to simplify even more than we already had, which is totally unfun when you have such little ones…. the commericalism of Christmas truly breaks my heart. And I’m beginning to be “bothered” by all the non-Christians who celebrate a holiday that was intended to celebrate Christ. But then there is Santa – it’s a mess. Oy.
REFER TO LAST YEARS COMMENT ABOUT CHRISTMAS!
First of all, this video just fried me. Where has humanity gone?
I love the question and I also wish I had a good answer to what we are doing but I do not. Something to think about as we all get caught up in the gift frenzy and forget about what it is we are really here to celebrate.
Our church does adopt a family. We got our kids to go in with us and adopt a large family. My wife, two of her daughters and one of mine went out shopping Friday morning for the family. Now if I an just get them to feel that good about buying PAPA some gifts this year, I would love it.
This year we have decided as a family to give donations to World Vision as gifts to our family members and friends instead of purchasing gifts. We want our gifts to be a gift to others too.
black friday makes me want to punch myself in the face…there is no better way to put it.
There is a book called Jesus Be in My Christmas by Sarah Hornsby. You start it the first day of Advent and there is a AM/PM devotion. It really makes you think and reflect on Him and that is what I am trying to do each day.
Situations like the one in this video make me so sad. It shows the famine of faith.
I think it is time that Christian’s stop participating in secular Christmas. Stop spending money we don’t have and give what we can to the church and help people in need. We need to tell our kids there is no Santa Clause and that Christmas is about one gift, that gift is Jesus. That is all that matters.
By stopping the outrageous spending it will focus us on what really matters, helping those in need.
Just my 2 cents.
How about simplifying and giving gifts to those in Asia?
Here’s a website and video that illustrates the current American mindset and what can be done to change it.
http://www.forgottenchristmas.org
If I comunmitcaed I could thank you enough for this, I’d be lying.
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Great post. Recently I’ve downloaded a free app for my iPhone with sound Biblical preaching. The Very First CHRISTmas is a MUST HAVE interactive storybook of the birth of Jesus Christ! The App is all about Christ’s birth. Beautifully illustrated, with sound Biblical teaching. There are three different activities to reinforce the message of Christ’s birth. With the two fun filled games that support the story and animation which allows the kids to put together their own storybook, this App is sure to be a Christmas favorite!There is also a feature to allow the App to automatically read the story to the smaller children.