Christmas: Commerce or Christ?
By Grace Communion, Crossgates
For East Leeds Magazine, November 2010

For most people Christmas is a commercial festival. Christmas cards are in the shops from July or earlier.  We see charity Christmas card sales, and brochures go out in August. And from around mid-October, television commercials for toys, presents of all sorts, food and drink, the latest CD’s and computer games which dominate our TV screens. Retailers gear up earlier and earlier with Christmas carols played over their PA systems. And stores are decorated brightly and stocked with the latest ‘must haves.’ The success or otherwise of the Christmas season is judged by how much spending goes up or down.

The giving and receiving of gifts defines the season for our retailers. The more we can be persuaded to spend the better. If they are not careful, parents feel the pressure to give the latest and most expensive toys and gadgets while children are taught that it’s all about what you get, not what you give.

So many people, whether Christians or not, dislike the commercialism of Christmas. It is also promoted as a family time which puts added pressure on those who live alone or have no family. For some it can be the loneliest time of the year. Swamped under all the commercial focus the true meaning of Christmas can be lost, even for some Christians.

So should Christians have a negative and judgmental view of it and despair at the crass commercialism of this important time of year? Or should they welcome it as a time when, whatever people’s beliefs, there is a vague awareness that it is a significant festival which has something to do with Christ. Of course, no serious Christian scholar believes Christ was born on December 25th. But it may be called Christ's official birthday, just as the Queen has a real and official birthday.

If Christians focus only on December 25th and the overindulgence in food, drink and expensive presents they will indeed have a negative view of this wonderful time. But Christians should know and celebrate that this is a time called advent which runs for most of the month, not a single day. It is a time to think about and reflect on the birth of our saviour, Jesus Christ, as a human being but also to think about and reflect on his second coming in power and glory to save humanity from themselves.

Swamped by the commercialism of this season, it’s easy to think the world has forgotten God. But God has not forgotten the world. In his immeasurable grace he sent his son to die for all humanity. In his time scale Christ will return and wipe away all the tears, suffering and pain that fills the world today.

For Christians the Christmas season is a potent reminder of that fact which cannot be sidelined by the commercialism that surrounds us. So Christmas should be and is a time of rejoicing for Christians, a time to focus on God’s love and the future.

It’s a time of joy and a time for singing those wonderful Christmas carols and thinking about the meaning in the words.

We invite our neighbours in the Crossgates area to a Christmas carol service on Saturday 18th December at The GVWA Hall, Pendas Way, Crossgates, LS15 8LE.                                                  

We offer tea and coffee at 2pm, with the service at 2.30pm - 4pm, followed by mince pies and cakes with our compliments. Everyone is welcome.

Merry Christmas to all our readers from Grace Communion.

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