have yourself a contentious little Christmas!

I am known to some as a contentious person. If there is something that I perceive as being worth railing against, than rail against it I do...and a lot! And given the season, lately my pet peeve has been Christmas. Now don't get me wrong, I have been whining and moaning about Christmas every year for the past five years or so (especially the crappy music I'm forced to endure from November 1st onward!), but this year the crass commercialism of it has really hit home and therefore I often want to completely tune out the holidays. Granted, I am really only buying one gift this year as part of a family exchange and, inspired partly by Advent Conspiracy, I am investing my time in gifts for my loved ones rather than buying them some token presents that they neither need and that I feel obligated to purchase for them. This is a good thing and I am convinced that those who receive gifts from me will appreciate them more than they might store-bought gifts, but I realized today that something was missing...

In all my haste to condemn Christmas commercialism, I had lost sight of why this holiday season is important to me and thus I had simply reduced it to a consumer boycott. I know that resisting the consumer hype is totally valid and important, but where was the corollary? Christmas is all about the birth of Christ, which is why the season is so meaningful to me as a follower of Jesus; that had eluded me completely so far this year. May God forgive me and help me to never lose sight of this in the future...