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Do you celebrate it all? What does your church have to say about it?

Personally, we don't do much. I may buy the family a gift that benefits everyone. No tree, no lights. Just not a big thing for me. Thanksgiving is actually more important to me, not that I am downplaying the birth of Christ, I simply feel Christmas has become too commercialized.

For myself personally there is much I really like about the Christmas season. And I prefer to stay positive about it. I do not think that we are a good testimony to those looking on when we constantly are negative about this time of year. I think non Christians especially get confused when Christians reject a day that at this point even they still know what the real reason for the season is.
Certainly if commercialization is drowning that out for you than it is good to take a step or two back.

My wife loves just about everything about the season. She loves decorating, planning special holiday get togethers, making special food, and more than anything she loves Christmas music. At our church we always have an advent service the first Sunday evening in December which is a very special service of singing and readings which I think always helps to get me focused on the most important aspects of the season. All in all I enjoy this time of year but I try and respect those that see it differently.

And oh by the way. My wife's birthday is on the 25th of Nov. and so my birthday gift to her every year is simply "Honey since it is your birthday you can now start decorating and playing Christmas music."

This often varies from family to family. We do a gift exchange as a family, and try to get together over Christmas or New Years sometime. Last year our whole family came home. This year my son's family won't make it, but they are stopping in on their way home from a trip east in a week or two.

We don't have church on Christmas. Some churches do, some don't. I really don't think the whole issue is worth the debate that sometimes comes out of it.

[bible]col 2,16[/bible]

In my family history we went from probably one extreme to another. As a child I really didn't like it when Christmas day fell on a Sunday and interfered with all the things we did at Christmas. Christmas in those days was all about me and getting and playing with new stuff. Then one year my father decided we would not go along with the 'world's celebration' format and we had no tree, no gifts and treated Christmas more like a normal Sunday. 'After all, Jesus birth did not have this 'exchange of gifts' thing we were doing.' Well, that was a bummer and the next year we went back to our fun Christmas with a couple alterations like buying a goat for a third world family and buying gifts for poor families. Later in life, I, too, got disgusted with all the 'worship of mammon' and spent a Christmas in Florida, away from family, at a golf vacation.

Today, I feel more as appleman2006 puts it. Personally, I don't have this sense of needing to make a point about 'putting Christ back into Christmas' as imo, for the vast majority in our culture over many decades now, He never was 'the reason for the season'. However, it is opportunity to reflect what Christ coming into this world means to us and a great time to share that with those who will listen. And an acceptable time to get family friends together. Decorating can be fun also. And the food, well, that can be a problem for me. I love desserts.

As I have said in previous years, if we want to make Christ's entry into this world a celebration separate from the current 'Christmas' we could set a date, perhaps in June, and start a new celebration day. I think if a Christian group got actively developing something like this it might have quite an impact on the unchurched. A day primarily on giving to the needy and focused on God and others rather than on ourselves. One of my dreams and on my list of things I like to ponder.

lesterb wrote: but they are stopping in on their way home from a trip east in a week or two.

Whoa, whoa, whoa! East? How far?

We have our family together sometime around Christmas or New Years. We have church on both those days so some prefer to get together on a Saturday instead. I don't like the gift giving part; we used to get each family a block of cheese or some apple butter. My wife buys or makes gifts for the under fourteen group but not gifts that compare with what the grandchildren get from the other grandparents. if I could, I would skip that whole gift idea. We eat together, play some games, sing for a while then eat some more.

We have no decorations or trees; there have been times when I would gladly have joined those Mennonites who avoid celebrating Christmas until someone explained that commemorating the day respectfully instead of in a commercialised way would be best. If Christians ignore the one day that others remember may indeed cause confusion.

Signtist wrote:

lesterb wrote: but they are stopping in on their way home from a trip east in a week or two.

Whoa, whoa, whoa! East? How far?

Umm, probably about 15 minutes from your place... They went all the way to the Atlantic somewhere to visit an island with wild horses. Not sure where. Now they're in Ontario for a week. Just got there tonight.

lesterb wrote:

Signtist wrote:

lesterb wrote: but they are stopping in on their way home from a trip east in a week or two.

Whoa, whoa, whoa! East? How far?

Umm, probably about 15 minutes from your place... They went all the way to the Atlantic somewhere to visit an island with wild horses. Not sure where. Now they're in Ontario for a week. Just got there tonight.

Been years since I've seen him...

steve-in-kville wrote:Do you celebrate it all? What does your church have to say about it?

Personally, we don't do much. I may buy the family a gift that benefits everyone. No tree, no lights. Just not a big thing for me. Thanksgiving is actually more important to me, not that I am downplaying the birth of Christ, I simply feel Christmas has become too commercialized.

Is it really the birth of Christ? Where in scripture do we find the command to "remember his birth"?

gcdonner wrote:

steve-in-kville wrote:Do you celebrate it all? What does your church have to say about it?

Personally, we don't do much. I may buy the family a gift that benefits everyone. No tree, no lights. Just not a big thing for me. Thanksgiving is actually more important to me, not that I am downplaying the birth of Christ, I simply feel Christmas has become too commercialized.

Is it really the birth of Christ? Where in scripture do we find the command to "remember his birth"?

Most likely not.
Technically no although the fact that the event is mentioned in such detail in two of the gospels would give at least the suggestion that it might be important for us to remember it.