Christma$ – 3 Ways to Redeem Gift-Giving

Christma$ – It doesn’t have to be this way

Christma$… Spending money we don’t have on people who don’t need anything???

The First Christmas was messy, rustic, simple, beautiful and powerful…

God came to earth as one of us… vulnerable… homeless… exposed…

Fact: There was no exchange of gifts at the first Christmas. The wisemen did not arrive until over a year later.

Fact: The only gift given at Christmas was the gift of God among us to save us.

Is it possible to celebrate the original meaning of Christmas without arriving at January exhausted and with debt???

3 Suggestions:

1. Give local gifts.

Bless the local economy (it also blesses your family indirectly). It is a special feeling to watch a loved one open a gift and know that you met and spoke with the person who made it/painted it/recorded it/cooked it/etc.

2. Give relational gifts.

Write in the card a favourite memory of the person. Write an affirming note… heck, write 12 affirming notes they can read once a month for the whole year.

Give a gift that will make memory together. “Your gift this year is that I am taking you to Magic Mountain for the day” for example.

Make a scrap book for a person. It is inexpensive and cherished forever.

3. Give helpful gifts.

One year in lieu of buying gifts for our family members we spent the money on buying bug nets for children in sub-Saharan Africa.

Donate to your local foodbank.

Give anonymous blessings like St. Nick did centuries ago. Bless a family, a widow, a friend in a hard spot, AND THEY DON’T EVEN HAVE TO KNOW!!

QUESTION: If you had to spend Christmas like they did 300 years ago, how would you do it differently?

Do you think it would it be worse or better than the debt-saturated, time-crunching Christmases we survive now?