to do "christmas" or to not do "christmas"


as a christian, christmas is supposed to be about "something." i am pretty sure that "something" is not throwing up all over ourselves to find our significant others and family something new, bright and shiny. kids are a completely different issue. how else are our young children supposed to learn the joy of giving if they are not given every little thing their heart desires, at least until the myth of santa claus is debunked? when hannah realizes that her mommy and daddy (and grandparents sometimes) are playing the role of santa, we will then transition to teaching her how to lie to her little sister, perpetuating the idea of a living, breathing santa for caroline for as long as possible. "only through the concept of deceit can a person fully understand the idea of truth.", right? surely, some famous person said that. anyway, i digress. i admit that i have always fallen victim to the idea of christmas and spending huge amounts of money on sarah going hand in hand. not one christmas since we have been together have we not gone above and beyond our agreed upon budget and spent money (thoughtfully) to make sure the other was satisfied with their bounty. and then a funny thing happened.

we don't really need anything anymore. and both of us are having a hard time thinking of things that we want. this is the god's honest truth, but we actually entertained the idea this past week of not doing "christmas" for each other. no, we weren't talking about the idea that jesus wasn't born in december or anything like that. we were talking about what "christmas" is really about. the presents. we threw out the idea to each other and i will be frank (you be judy). the idea felt, how do you say, foreign. i don't remember a christmas with no presents. i don't want to remember a christmas with no presents. do we really want to set this kind of precedent? what if we didn't spend money that we don't have on each other, take in hannah's (and caroline's) christmas and birthday and the joy that it will bring her and then realize that we could go to bed christmas night just as content as we ever have? what then? would that be it? would that mean that every christmas, we would remember 2007 and say things like, "remember last year (or remember christmas, 2007?)? we didn't need presents to be happy. why don't we do that again?" well, that idea freakin' scares me to death. what if ps3's drop 200 bucks in price and i want one next christmas? what excuse (holiday) are we going to use to buy a new television? july 4th??? that just doesn't make any sense!!! it's a line i am not sure that i want us to cross.

admittedly, we didn't talk about the idea for long. probably because we both felt weird about it. maybe it was just me. but the idea of christmas and presents is so wired into me, so wired into most of us, that to unplug from that world doesn't seem very worth it unless i could plug into a world where i have superpowers.

i'll definitely let you know how this "discussion" turns out. my guess is that it will end up with some sort of compromise. i'll just give her "permission" to go buy a lot of clothes and she'll "promise" me that a new hdtv might be in the cards before next football season. we'll have to see.

it's an interesting thought, though. trying to take "christmas" and reclaiming it as christmas. i don't know if i am strong enough to do it, but i'd like to be.

praise god from whom all presents flow.