I am not a fan of Christmas. That was a sentiment I’ve had since the time I started working. Not only was there an obligation to buy gifts, I also had to deal with other people wanting to buy gifts, creating traffic and stressful congestion in stores. Before I started working, I was either a child who only received, or I was a poor unemployed college student who had an excuse not to buy gifts. But when I was earning, I had to conform to this tradition. I had no excuse. Resistance was futile.
I also remember thinking back to one childhood Christmas I had in Kerala. There was no concept of gifts. It’s Christmas stars, firecrackers, and church. It was a good Christmas. But now having five consecutive Christmases in Kerala, I’m beginning to think nothing has really changed. I’m still not a fan of Christmas.
Jimmy Kimmel had a gag where he had his viewers give their kids a gift they could open early, a gift that they wouldn’t want, and record their reaction and put it on YouTube. Besides the ethical questions of parents doing that to their children, seeing the children’s responses was quite disturbing. They were so angry with their parents for giving them something they didn’t want. Some even said, “I hate you.” When my generation were kids, our selfishness was probably no different. But we were constantly reminded with TV commercials and sitcoms about the moral of the story, “Christmas is the season for giving, not receiving.” We were given a guilt-trip if we were only concerned about what we received.
In Kerala, I have been free from this cultural obligation of gift giving for the past five years during Christmas season. Traffic conditions aren’t any different. Congestion in stores are no different. Why do I still have this non-festive mood? Is it because of the overabundance of Christmas cake? Is it the Christmas Father with the nightmarish face that has ears forming out of his temples who speaks an alien language that only a select few can understand? I don’t know.
Were the Christmases from my childhood as great as I remember them to be? I’m beginning to think they weren’t. It was certainly wonderful to get my very first Transformer toy (Bluestreak), but that could have been a birthday gift as well. It wasn’t anything unique to Christmas. We always put up lights, a tree, stockings over the fireplace, although we never got into the apple cider or eggnog. I don’t think the latter contributes to the feeling that it wasn’t really a great Christmas.
“Jesus is the reason for the season” is a common refrain. It is very true. But not only has it become cliché, I don’t think it really salvages Christmas. Of course I know the birth of Jesus is the reason. Despite his actual birth date being unknown, and not December 25th, it was a day set aside to honor his birth (I won’t get into intentions and conspiracy theories on that). Many Christians should know this. Even many who aren’t Christian would know this. But why is knowing that not enough for me to just feel any festive cheer and celebrating Christmas?
I got to thinking about that day in which Jesus was born and why was it worthy of celebration. Those were very dark days. Imagine a people who lost their nation and were exiled, then to come back to their land only to be ruled by another empire? They were in despair and they knew it was because of their own sin. Then came Jesus. He came to set things right between not only Israel and God, but humanity and God. While it was his work on the cross that was the climactic moment of Redemptive History, it was only possible by his incarnation and birth. It was a moment of awe and wonder. For the first time, God has come down to his people. That little baby in a manger is the creator of the universe. For the atheist, the story is laughable. To the Christian, that story could be humbling. That baby, the creator of the universe, has been born a human. God will not only be with us, he will struggle with us, suffer with us, and share joys with us. God is perfectly revealed in Jesus. Jesus is to reconcile us to God after sin separated us. That baby in the manager is to do all that.
It does bring a sense of joy, but it is a joy immersed in humility. Praise and exaltation is given because in our darkest days, God came to say he has come, and he has come with saving authority.
Maybe Christmas isn’t to be so festive as we make it to be. It’s not to be depressing either. I think it’s to be a humble praise. Perhaps the Christmas season should be reflective on our need for a savior as individuals, a people and a world fallen in sin. When Christmas arrives, we celebrate with tears of humility that our savior is born. Sin is about to get a whooping from that little child.
I think Stanley, from The Office, said it best: "Just give me plain baby-Jesus-lying-in-a-manger Christmas." But the work that the baby Jesus was set to do is what we should reflect on.
