Don’t let that ‘holly-jolly Christmas’ take away the true meaning
View(s):By Anne Abayasekara
The cartoon showed a man heavily laden with parcels, plodding behind a woman who was presumably his wife. The words underneath, voiced by the man, said: “Christmas comes but once a year – A circumstance I loudly cheer!”
That cartoon exposed the modern tendency to focus on all the external trappings of Christmas – shopping sprees, Christmas trees, decorations, illuminations, balloons, Santa Claus, new clothes and, of course food. Songs like Jingle Bells, Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer, Santa Claus Is Coming to Town and that perennial favourite in tropical Sri Lanka – I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas – can be heard ad nauseam, enjoyed by all.
I have questions about the way that I myself celebrate Christmas. True, I joyfully immerse myself in the morning worship service in a packed church, whole-heartedly singing:
“Yea Lord, we greet Thee
Born this happy morning
Jesus, to Thee be glory given
……………………………”
I listen enthralled to the old but ever new story read out in church of that first Christmas in a manger in Bethlehem where there was no room for Him in the inn; of the angels’ song that inspired the shepherds to venture to ‘see this thing that has come to pass’; of the star than beckoned Wise Men from the East to travel far in search of the newborn Babe, bearing gifts for the Christ-child.
Then I go back home, and my mind immediately switches to the mundane. I now focus on the annual gathering of family and friends round my table for lunch on Christmas Day. I am anxious that the meal be a special one, enticingly prepared by my helper, Iranganie; that the table be attractively laid; that the Christmas pudding will be adequate for all. I make sure my Christmas presents are all neatly wrapped and labelled, that the flower-vases are well arranged, that I have made enough fruit drink to go round. When my guests arrive, we hug each other and there is a happy exchange of presents.
Last year, my young friend Sandra questioned the validity of our custom of exchanging gifts – we who were all fairly comfortably off and not really in need of the many presents we receive at Christmas. There was quite a discussion, some of us acknowledging the truth of Sandra’s viewpoint that the money we spend on these unnecessary gifts, might well be given to some worthy cause. Others maintained that our gifts to one another were a token of our affection and gave pleasure to both giver and receiver. “It’s not as if we don’t give anything to needy people at Christmas – at this season we are encouraged by our churches to give to those less privileged.
And then there are all those who serve us throughout the year – our domestic aides, the paper-man, the postman, the garbage removers, etc. It was conceded that most of us gave generous `Christmas santhosams’ to all who render any service to us. The matter was left undecided..
My mind goes back in time to when our children were young. Both my husband and I had grown up without any expectations from the mythical Santa Claus, which made us all the keener to give our brood the thrill of anticipating that this genial soul would come when they were asleep on Christmas Eve to leave something exciting behind for each of them.
They wrote letters to Santa which we pretended to post. They took ages to fall asleep on Christmas Eve and we had to wait up to make sure that no-one was awake when we went in to keep Santa’s gifts on their beds. Invariably, they would be up at crack of dawn and we would hear gleeful sounds until we finally had to get out of bed ourselves to tell them sternly that they must go back to sleep so that they would be up in time to attend the morning’s Christmas service.
Our eldest was seven years old when she asked us one day: “Why doesn’t Santa Claus visit poor children’s homes?” The question must have gradually formed in her mind since she and her siblings had always been urged to put aside toys, books and clothes “for poor children who don’t receive gifts.” They participated quite early in December in their Sunday School’s Christmas Gift Service at which all the children walked up to the altar to lay their gifts which they understood were to be distributed to “poor children”. We had to tell her the truth. She was incredulous at first. “You mean it was the two of you and not Santa who brought the dolls and tricycles and books and everything else we have received each year?”
We were sad to destroy forever her illusion of the cherubic figure in red suit and snowy beard who came on his reindeer-drawn sleigh to dispense delights when children were asleep on Christmas Eve. But even children have to face reality some time. Children less fortunate than our own faced it starkly almost from birth.
In our eagerness to make our own children happy, we tend to forget the need and misery and lack of basic necessities that a large mass of families bear.
However much we glamorise Christ’s birth, the fact is that He was born in a smelly stable; that when He embarked on His ministry He literally had nowhere to lay His head; that He had neither money nor possessions; that He reached out to the lost and the lonely and the outcasts of society; that He taught us in the parable of the Good Samaritan that anyone in need is our neighbour whom we should love as we love ourselves; and that He told us unmistakably in the parable of the sheep and the goats ((St.Matt: ch.25), that finally we would be judged by how much or how little we responded to the needs of others – the sick, the stranger, those in prison, the hungry, the homeless and the naked. Whatever loving act we performed for the underprivileged in our midst, would count as done to Him.
But in as much as we did nothing for “the least important of these, my brothers, ye did it not unto Me.”
It’s not just at Christmas, but right throughout the year that Christ expects us to follow His example. If we invite Him into our hearts and homes this Christmas, perhaps His indwelling Spirit will empower us to be loving and giving all year round.
“Peace to every neighbour on this Christmas Day;
Christ is born our Saviour, love is come to stay.”
May you have a blessed Christmas.
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