Do You Have Holiday Spirit?
Every year at this time, I hear a lot about having the holiday spirit. Movies are made. Stores are decorated in mid October. Songs are played on the radio before Thanksgiving, and advertisements abound trying to get people into the holiday spirit. This year, I started wondering, what the holiday spirit actually is.
Depending on who is using it, the phrase seems to mean anything from the stuff you put in your eggnog to the warm fuzzy feelings you get from spending time with your family and giving them expensive gifts. People fought the crowds on Black Friday to take advantage of sales were described as having holiday spirit. People who put a bunch of tacky decorations in their front yard are described as having holiday spirit. But what is holiday spirit?
A few things can be ruled out quickly. If it is something you put in your eggnog, then it is something that can ruin your life if you’re not careful. If it is gift giving, than we can hardly blame the person who was laid off this year and is dangerously close to losing his house for not having holiday spirit.
If holiday spirit is the warm fuzzy feeling you get from spending time with family, then it’s no wonder suicide rates tend to increase around holidays. Many people don’t have family to spend time with. In this broken world, there are people who will be celebrating their first Christmas as a divorcee or a widow this year. Some people have lost a parent or child. Some have been told that they are unable to have children. Some have been estranged from people who were once close. Rather than getting warm fuzzy feelings, these people will have a deep sense of longing this year. They will feel empty and lonely and sad that they can’t spend time with that family member.
I think that true holiday spirit comes from focusing on the reason the holiday is celebrated in the first place. In the case of Christmas, this would be the birth of the long awaited messiah, “Who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death–even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Phillippians 2:6-11)
In order to get into this type of holiday spirit, I have a few recommended products.
- 1. The Word of Promise Christmas Story
– This is the Christmas story told in dramatic audio theatre with a star studded cast including Lou Gossett, Jr. While you’re at it, you could get the whole Bible
done the same way.
- 2. The Nativity Story
– An excellent depiction of the story on DVD.
- 3. The Very First Christmas
– A great children’s book by an excellent historian.
If you can’t afford to buy things, I suggest cracking open the old Bible. The Christmas story can be found at the beginning of Matthew and at the beginning of Luke. I also look forward every year to the Charley Brown Christmas special
“‘She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.’
All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: ’The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel’–which means,’God with us.’” (Matthew 1:21-23)
Filed under: Current Events, Holidays, Religion
thanks !! very helpful post!
thanks !! very helpful post!