A Christmas Alternative

One Black Friday in Orlando, Florida, several years ago, customers in a national discount chain store got into a brawl over laptop computers. The story made it to the national TV news: two men tackling another man and pulling him to the ground, because he had cut ahead of them in line. “It was absolute pandemonium in there,” said one observer. “They were throwing these laptops 20 feet into the air, and people were collapsing on each other to grab them.”What would Jesus make of that scene? Imagine him standing off to one side, in his robe and sandals. What sort of expression would he have on his face, knowing that all that brawling was set off by his birthday? That why those shoppers were doing it, wasn’t it — because they wanted to be first in line to honor Jesus’ birth?Of course it wasn’t! Sadly, the sort of holiday that issues in department-store riots has long since lost any resemblance to the celebration of the Messiah’s birth. Not only has the commercialized Christmas lost touch with its roots; from what we can see on CNN of the laptop wars, it’s even become demonic. How easy it is to get caught up in the rush, and end up, as Paul says, “doing the very thing we hate”!

This year my church will have an alternative to the commercialism that has come to dominate the secular celebration of Christmas. The alternative is our Alternative Gift List. Instead of buying gifts for family members and friends who already have everything they need, our alternative gift list will give people an opportunity to give money to a charity in the name of a friend or family member. For each donation in someone else’s name, you will receive a certificate stating that a donation was made by you in their name, and the name of the charity.

Giving a gift from the Alternative Gift List is a great way for us to remember and participate in the true meaning of Christmas. When we give to the poor and needy at Christmas, those gifts remind us that Jesus came to save the least, the lost, and the neediest in our world. We may not win the war with our culture over the true meaning of Christmas, but we can certainly choose a faithful alternative.