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That Christmas 'feeling' is arising in many people. Not so much in others. But what is the 'Christmas feeling'? So, one, simple question - What does Christmas mean to you?
If I might make a request, though, please try to answer for yourself and hold back from trying to invalidate what it might mean to someone else.
For me Christmas is getting more and more meaningful each year. As a 34 year old Christian man, five years married and with two young kids, it's been an interesting and challenging experience growing up and seeing change, and along the way having to evaluate and re-evaluate my beliefs and behaviours. As each year passes, and perhaps as Christianity tends to be less generally acknowledged and claimed by many British, or even 'western', people, I have found myself standing on a sort of fault-line where two world move in different directions - in some ways, at least. Two 'worlds' that used to happily live together are moving apart and that has meant that whatever is left has to stand for itself, essentially a test of integrity or reality in life.
Of course, part of it is growing a family too, and apart from wanting to see my children smile, and wanting to give them awesome gifts that they'll love, there's also the reality that children do bring an amazing perspective to life. I remember the first time my son saw rain outside the window at night, visibly in some nearby lamp-light. He didn't look away and it might sound cheesy but I got to see rain again in a fresh way, through his eyes. That same things happens constantly now, with so many things, and certainly it happens at Christmas. Yet, I can't say that Christmas is 'just for the kids', because I definitely do feel and enjoy Christmas for myself. In some ways, as a Dad, it's my view and experience of Christmas that influences my family's because I can have such a massive role in making or unmaking it - and whether or not it's 'real' for me, myself, is a significant factor in that, I think. Essentially, then, for me, that brings the question of what Christmas means right back to me. And as this year I've tried to make Christmas something special for my kids, and my wife, I've found that while buying presents for my kids has been a joyful experience, buying for everyone else it's been a less significant element. I've found I've just wanted to enjoy regular time with friends and family, and more specifically, do so with a joint focus on Christmas. A sort of shared experience of Christmas. I think that's been the biggest thing this year. Not just thinking my own thoughts and feeling my own feelings, but really being able to share all of that along with others.
So far this year I've been, with my wife, kids, dad, his wife and other friends, to a carol service which featured the Royal Gibraltar Regiment band. We've been out as a family to the town's lighting ceremony (turning on the tree and lights), a couple of times to a small Christmas fair, and then at home, each night we've been opening doors on an advent calendar with the kids by candlelight, singing a different carol together each night, and talking about the meaning of Christmas and why we celebrate it. Together with my wife we've been enjoying some short readings each evening, for advent, and talking a little about that, and then as a family and with my brother, we decorated the tree and house.
Some of that might be similar to what others do, some not. For me, though, it's been that by focusing in and thinking about whether Christmas means anything, what it means, and how I/we can meaningfully enjoy it, it's brought out a real personal appreciation for it. If I had to simply sum up some of what Christmas means for me, I'd have to talk about it being a time of wonder, a joyful time, a time for community, and especially, a time for reflection and response - because this last part is what, for me, generates the rest. Of course, I connect the reflection with joy and wonder because of what I am an reflecting on and touched by - the Christmas story. The joy and wonder of God becoming man, Emmanuel, God with us, in order to save us. It's an act filled with love, wonder, joy, humility, mystery and sacrifice and it produces a really full and meaningful Christmas for me, and a genuine personal excitement, because it's a reality to me, and around me, and that makes all the difference.
So to TLDR - for me, each year, Christmas is less about presents and parties and music and TV, and more about time reflecting and resting and enjoying, both by myself and with my family - all of that being a different aspect of worship. I'd say Christmas is a time of reflection, leading to and joy and wonder and worship.
Anyone else?
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