How many Americans broke their checking accounts last Christmas?

…or became stressed?

…or couldn’t wait for the Holidays to simply be a memory?

I have grown weary of the way Americans have done Christmas.  The expectations, the lists, the fears of not having enough, the two-days-before- Christmas-freak-out- because-you’re- not-finished-shopping, the ads, the consumption …yes, it’s the consumption.

Consume.  Consume.  Consume.

As a kid growing up in Ohio I remember watching “Little House on the Prairie” reruns, the classic TV show overflowing with simplicity, victories, and smiles – a lot of smiles.  A scene which remains vivid in my mind was one which was set during the Christmas season.  I remember it because Christmas joy was prominent even though few gifts were present.  The girls received a lollipop for Christmas.  I remember laughing out loud at the gift. 

”A lollipop?  Who wants a lollipop?”

The girls in the little house, however, were overjoyed.  They could not contain their excitement and Christmas was a success.  Not because of the lollipops but because of the love behind the gift.  Now I know that none of us care to learn life lessons from the Little House but this one scene has stuck with me.  The simplicity of it.  The sheer joy of being with each other in love.

Why can’t Christmas be about family and spending time together?   Why can’t it be about the heart and a meaningful gift?  Why can’t a cup of hot chocolate specially prepared for someone, or a walk, or a handmade necklace, or…you name it…be sufficient.  Why can’t love dominate?

Would it be too radical to change the way we do Christmas?”  I’d ask myself.  This was until last fall when I heard of the Advent Conspiracy through Donald Miller and the light bulb in my mind began to flicker. 

We’ll change.

The real beauty of “Changing Christmas” this year is that this isn’t simply a money saver.  If my goal in this experiment is to have more cash to spend on myself, than I’ve totally missed it.  Here’s the point:  On Black Friday this year (the day after Thanksgiving), Americans will spend well over 8 billion dollars[1].  Christmas has become less about the incarnation of Christ and more about the infatuation with the material.  It’s money that’s our God, stuff our heaven, and Walmart our worship center.  And the prices keep on falling.

This may be fine for you but I can’t handle it.  It’s the twenty-five thousand people who will die from hunger on the twenty-fifth and the four-hundred and fifty billion dollars we’ll spend on the stuff – the CD’s, the jeans, the sweaters, the Wii.[2] 

It’s the kid in Africa who’s stomach protrudes like a pregnant belly though viewing his back and arms you’d think you were seeing a dark brown skeleton.  And it’s the boy in Baltimore who will spend Christmas alone because his daddy was killed when he was four, his momma’s passed out on the floor, and his dinner will be a couple spoonfuls of peanut butter.

Think about it, if Americans cut their entire Christmas spending in half, we’d have an additional $225 billion dollars to fight this sort of thing.  What would it look like if we truly embraced the incarnation and turned from consumerism to compassion?

First, we would be able to give more to those who really need it.  We are no longer consumers but we are rather consumed with the love of Jesus, whose birth we celebrate, and we show that love through incarnating the gospel throughout the world in the form of poverty relief and a variety other ways.

It also frees us up financially as most of us, if any, can really afford the kind of cash we will spend on Christmas.

Third, it removes the pressure to do better than last year and the question do I have enough for this person?  The question now becomes, will this person feel my love through this gift?