Christmas again...

It is that time of year when we turn our collective eyes and hearts to all things Holiday-ish. I come into the season a bit weary but nonetheless ready. This year our family's theme is Hope wherever we can find it and recognize it. So as my tradition I will be posting along that theme not only on advent Sundays but through-out the 25 days.

I have just finished reading a series of history books about the middle ages, Celts, Irish, Greeks and the early Jews. In this tapestry of information that I have ingested, the celebration of Christmas has certainly evolved over the years. One the more interesting items is that as much as we think that Christmas is being stolen from us by those non-religious...we started off the stealing it in the first place. We all know that Jesus was not born on the 25th of December and that this holiday of solstice was taken and redeemed by the early Catholic church. Many of the decorations we use today was used before for something pagan. I think it is a bit ironic how upset we get when people take Christ out of Christmas when we put Christ into Solstice in the first place. We made it Holy...but then we can make every day Holy.
It's really OK how anyone wants to celebrate this break in the winter doldrums. We need some light in these dark days. Re-placing the former with a better is a wonderful way to lighten up the dark nights. Why not make it Jesus' birthday, why not give meaning to presents and trees and garlands and food. But it isn't our holiday, we took it and remade it in our image. Today, even more so in the consumer laden, guilt giving , over-indulgence of a Western holiday gone amok.
Maybe we can relax about making sure everyone takes this holiday seriously... It is a huge undertaking and not really a fight we have been commanded to take. Now...Resurrection Sunday on the other hand...this is another story all-together. Let start by not calling it Easter.