As I celebrated an early Christmas with my family over the
Thanksgiving holiday, I had something come up around what it all means to me.
As a few of us exchanged gifts; I felt a sense of joy for being together
sharing a family tradition, but at the same time uncomfortable – yet not sure exactly
why. I realized that I needed more clarity around my discomfort, so decided to step
back and ponder. This is what came out of that process.
For me, the spirit of Christmas is primarily a celebration
of Jesus’ values of “loving your neighbor as yourself,” and even a more radical
invitation to “love your enemies.”
Somehow, in my family and in our wider Western culture
family, we have chosen to celebrate Christmas by buying and exchanging gifts—things
that are made by someone else, usually in a far away country, so it has lots of
hidden costs to the environment—AND—it is so impersonal. When I think about the
strategy of gift giving I feel sad and disappointed because it misses so much
for me.
I acknowledge that some people do express their love through
giving gifts, but there are so many other ways to express love—why just focus
on buying and giving gifts?
Perhaps we could consider sharing our love in smaller ways
that are more organic, environmentally friendly and connecting. We could start
with the people closest to us, or perhaps adopt the radical idea of giving to
people you don’t really know, before giving to those closest to you. Consider
the many options for expressing our love by means that do not involve the usual
gift buying/giving:
- Inviting a friend out for coffee, lunch or diner
- Giving some money to the people who ask
- Calling a friend over the phone and connecting with them from the heart
- Helping someone you know with one of their projects
- Giving money to people who are struggling financially
- Buying groceries for someone who is struggling financially
- Paying for the groceries for the person in front of you, or behind you
- Writing a note to the people we care about, letting them know we are thinking about them or why we cared to write
- Writing a note to dear friends on their FB page
- If you’ve lent money to a friend, consider canceling the debt
- Sending a donation to your favorite charity
- Contributing financially or serving at a food kitchen
As I look around my home, closet and garage, I find myself
wanting less stuff not more—related to my needs for clarity and freedom—so please,
do not buy me anything. This year, I’m breaking
tradition by giving things that can’t be bought at a store. For me, it
resonates as being closer to the spirit of Christmas. I’m curious to hear what
comes up for you around this?
1 comment:
What a thoughtful post. I appreciate your insights and agree completely with your sense of sadness over the missed ooportunity to set meaningful intentions over this holiday, as well as sharing love in meaningufl and lasting ways. I do also want to say something about gift giving. I find myself wanting to shed more and more 'things' in my life, and yet I still enjoy giving and receiving gifts. Fortunately I have some great friends who share similar values and we have been giving homemade and useful gifts items to eachother for years. I find myself embodying this ethic in all my gift giving. Sometimes that means buying a book for the over stimulated kid who has everything, or it means making a giant batch of cookies and gifting those on pretty plates for the season. There are many ways to explore gift giving and still respect our endeavors to simplify and waste less.
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