My beloved and I had a conversation last week trading ideas about family Christmas traditions. We haven't started any of our own yet--just continuing on our childhood ones since we still visit both families over the holidays. But with two little ones, we're starting to think seriously about what we'd like to do to celebrate Christmas with our family.
What partially spurred the discussion was watching a YouTube video of children reacting poorly to fake Christmas gifts (thanks, Leah!); however, the lion's share of the reflecting came from reading a blog post in conjunction with the video. Ann Voskamp describes a challenging tradition of gifting Christ in honor of his birthday: give to the least of these, and you give to me.
Challenging because it exposes commercialized celebrations; challenging because it mocks my selfishness; challenging because it requires personal sacrifice--a small version of the anguish Christ suffered for my sake.
Giving to the least of these is an option to celebrate a humble stable birth looking up to the blood-stained cross.
