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Our local ministerial group (pastors of all the local churches) take turns contributing articles to our local weekly newspaper. December was my turn simplifying the choice of theme. It was printed yesterday in the Christmas edition of the paper. Here is the article, quoted in full.

Walking into a shopping centre during the month of December and hearing festive holiday music stirs up mixed feelings in many people. Some feel joy and are filled with the Christmas spirit, and for them the holiday music couldn’t start soon enough. Others however feel less excited, and would prefer to hold off playing Christmas music as long as possible. As someone who spent many December days and nights working in a retail environment, I often fall into the second category. Too often, the same CD full of popular musicians singing popular Christmas songs would cycle through our store speakers all day long.
In our sterilized commercial atmospheres, one song that survives the secular filter is “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” by the 1984 charity supergroup Band Aid. What was a fundraising effort to help starving Ethiopian children has left an indelible mark on popular music, and especially popular Christmas music.
The lyrics of the song suggest that for various reasons (hunger, fear, drought, poverty, lack of snow, etc.) Ethiopians, especially children, might not know it was Christmas at all. Much has been said about this Western-centric view of Christmas, but it brings to mind the mindset that many people have that if certain things are missing, Christmas is either ruined or it just doesn’t happen. So Christmas is a happy time, but only if certain things are included.
Sadly, the lack of gifts can ruin Christmas for children and families. Many great charities are in place to collect and distribute appropriate gifts to children from poorer families. Your donation to these charities helps to ensure that poverty will not ruin Christmas in these homes.
Food is another item that charities gather for increased distribution around the holidays. This time of year highlights the difference between rich and poor. When food is already short, a tight December budget can make food and gifts compete for dwindling incomes. In those situations, it is helpful when others respond to the call for food donations. By contributing quality food items at the grocery store or during the Santa Claus parade, etc., we can alleviate the stress too many people feel at this time of year, and help to ensure that empty cupboards won’t ruin Christmas in these homes.
The holidays are also often a time for families to gather, so when loved ones are not present, the tone of the celebration changes. When children or siblings leave the area to work or study in other parts of the world, costs and/or scheduling complications can make a trip home an unjustifiable expense. With the improvements in communications technology and the decrease of the related costs, having Christmas together is at least partially possible. Annual gatherings of families can also be powerful reminders of losses of loved ones suffered over the past year. To help families cope, it is important that their friends remember their time of sadness and remembrance. With extra sensitivity, we can make certain that our families and the families around us are comforted in this time, and try to ensure that the absence of loved ones won’t ruin Christmas in these homes.
Finally, another thing that people feel is necessary to fully enjoy the Christmas season is a positive Christian atmosphere within society. Many bemoan the loss of religious content in the holiday celebration as a sign of decreasing moral values in our society, claiming that generosity has been replaced with greed, religion has been replaced with materialism, the baby Jesus has been replaced with Santa Claus and Christmas has been replaced with Xmas. For many, there is nothing wrong with buying expensive gifts, indulging in mythical figures or using Greek-based short-forms. Many people however are angered when the Christian content is taken out of the holiday, or made less important. For them, Christmas is less enjoyable because they see other people “disrespecting” the holiday. The time when Christians were the majority has passed, but being in the minority is no reason to fret. Christians all over the world manage to celebrate Christmas without special sales, a government mandated paid holiday, or even church buildings in which to gather. To truly celebrate a holiday, we need to be celebrating within, despite the climate around us. With that in mind, hopefully we can ensure that Christmas is not ruined in our homes.