Christmas.

I won’t lie, I have not always been a big fan of Christmas.  Not because I am a scrooge, quite the opposite in my opinion.  It is such a wonderful holiday to bless others, spend time with family and give thanks for the reason we are here- Jesus.  Whether you consider yourself religious or not, does not matter.  Holidays are about love and family, you don’t need to believe in God to appreciate that.  But that is not what this country celebrates.  This country celebrates Christmas with THINGS.  Things that are shiny, things that are green and red, things that we do not need but it is CHRISTMAS so we buy them.  We spend our hard earned and saved money on gifts that most people will either return, re-gift, or never use.  Why?  Will those relationships falter if you don’t buy them something?  Will the world come crashing down if somebody doesn’t have a present to open on Christmas morning?  Of COURSE NOT.  So why are THINGS so important to everybody this time of year?

Don’t get me wrong, I love buying people gifts.  It is actually one of my favorite things to do.  I love finding that PERFECT gift for somebody.  Maybe the gift is $10 dollars, maybe it is $50, maybe it is free- just depends on the year and what I find.   But I like putting thought into my presents to other people, not just buying them something because it was on sale for a dollar on Black Friday and I had to punch out 4 people at 3am to get it. Again, I love the idea of exchanging gifts, but I have always felt it was not done right.

But then again, is shopping for families who are less fortunate all the same?  We are still buying them stuff they don’t need after all right?  This is something Shain and I do every year and it is one of my favorite traditions of ours, so I suppose I am hypocritical in that sense.  But knowing I am buying a few fun things for a child who otherwise would not have anything, makes me feel better than buying something for somebody just because  I “have to”.

But alas, it is impossible to be with somebody like Shain, and not LOVE Christmas, even with it’s faults.   My family has always done Christmas up pretty good, but the Diaz family…whoa.  They don’t mess around.   They have introduced me to so many fun traditions that I now cherish very much.  Being around Shain this time of year,  is literally like watching a little kid.  Despite not even being Thanksgiving yet, we have had Christmas radio on in the car and house non-stop.  If it were not for my pleading, Christmas decorations would have been up weeks ago.   He loves Christmas SO much that on actual Christmas day he becomes very sad and mopey, because it means the season is almost over.  I am not kidding people.

So despite me feeling conflicted for many reasons about this time of year, the joy and excitement of it are inevitable.  I still don’t agree with the the “stuff” part of Christmas, but I can get behind the anticipation of traditions with friends and family and watching movies like Elf, It’s a Wonderful Life and Christmas Story a million times over.   I encourage you to really think about how you approach this holiday season- I am not saying we should boycott gifts all together, but there needs to be more than just gifts.  Take your family to a soup kitchen, volunteer to sponsor a family, go Christmas Caroling or maybe just spend more time doing nothing with the ones you love most. If you are going to buy a gift, make it matter.  If not, just take that person out for coffee instead.  Relationships that are built upon fond memories are stronger than those built upon things.

Stay blessed in the mess 🙂