Christmas Games

My best Christmas memories really have nothing to do with opening presents. I think most people, if they really think about it, would agree.

We spend thousands of dollars on gifts every year. We give people who cannot afford those thousands of dollars, thousands of dollars’ worth of gifts. Black Friday and Christmas sales fill our airwaves and newspapers; all of this to get us to spend thousands more. But what did all that money buy us?

We love to receive but we love more to give, which is part of the image of God in us. But that feeling has been lost in the expectation of gifts. When you EXPECT to receive something, is it truly a gift when given to you? Somewhere, somehow Christmas has switched from a time of “giving” to a time of fulfilling an “obligation”.

My best Christmas memories are of the family getting together and having fun. Usually this had nothing to do with the gifts, they were incidental. My best Christmas memories are from my mom buying the latest board game as a “family gift” and all of us sitting down around the table and playing it for hours. We played it WITH each other, we laughed, we competed, we learned, and we loved it. The rest of the gifts were nice, useful like socks and underwear but the best gift with the game and family time.

As my kids grew up there were many times we could not afford gifts. We would shop garage sales and thrift stores for gifts and sometimes we would simply make them. I would shop with the kids and give them ten $1 bills that they were to spend at the dollar store and buy gifts for their siblings, parents and grandparents with that. Sometimes we got an erasure and a pencil and thought it was the BEST THING EVER!

A few words of advice for this Christmas:

Spend more time than you spend money.

Buy gifts that will encourage family time (Board games, Dance and sing video games, etc.) and not pull away from family (headphones, etc.).

Make a BIG meal, meaning one that lasts a long time and not just a lot of food.

Christmas is a time to remember Christ coming on this earth but it was never a big holiday until the last hundred years. (Easter was the BIG one!) So give in a way that God gives: love, time, family, and sacrifice. Don’t give in the way the world gives: money, obligation, and expectation.

Have a Merry Christmas.