Christmas 7: An (almost!) first Christmas

Jesus & Christmas part 7 - 

An (almost!) first Christmas

Guest post by Ali Scott.

Ali and Claire Scott live in Durham, UK and reflect here on how they have thought about adapting their inherited family traditions and creating new ones so to make the most of Christ this Christmas.

Having been married for 18 months, my wife Claire and I have had one Christmas together and are now approaching our second. We both hail from Christian families and experienced regular Christmas Day morning church which put Jesus at the forefront of all of the celebrations at the start of the day.

Effort with Family honours Jesus

Quality time with family has always been at the heart of both of our Christmases. The opportunity the Christmas holiday period presents for this is something Christians should seize, for the significance of the family unit is something which the Bible makes much of. Indeed, God’s entire plan for salvation was rooted in the choosing of a family – that of Abraham and Sarah – through which he would bless the world. Therefore, I believe that investing time in any family relationships that God has given to us at Christmas, even when that means effort on our part, is a way of honouring Jesus. 

For those of us who have Christian families, I would encourage us to seek to have some sort of forum when we are together over Christmas to share our reflections on how God has worked in us – through our struggles and joys - over the past year and what we hope he will do in the year ahead. Claire and I did this with my family last New Year’s Eve and it was awesome way of placing Jesus right at the centre of all the fun we were having.

Effort with neighbours honours Jesus

Equally, though, God’s people are called to love not just those who are close to them but anyone who is their ‘neighbour’ (which the Parable of the Good Samaritan makes clear is anyone in need that God puts in our path). Consequently, Claire and I are determining to always be on the look-out for those who may be lonely or needy in some way over Christmas as, once again, this is a way of worshiping Jesus in a very practical way. 

This year God has presented us with opportunities to do just that. Claire works in supported accommodation for homeless women and this involves her working on Christmas Day morning. Although rather reluctantly accepting this initially, we are now seeing it as an opportunity to make Christmas less focused on our own comfort – which it is all too easy to do – and more focused on living out the missionary impetus of the incarnation itself. I am getting involved in a Christmas meal for the homeless  at our local Salvation Army base a few days before Christmas which I pray God would use to open my eyes to new truths in the Christmas story that my middle-class Christian comfort often obstructs. God is challenging us to look out for similar opportunities in future Christmases to live out the heartbeat of the incarnation, rather than just thinking about it from the comfort of our Christian home.       

Effort to prepare for Christmas honours Jesus

Preparation for Christmas is something we both feel has been lacking in our Christmas traditions. Preparation that simply consist of eating chocolate from an Advent Calendar and watching cheesy films about a bearded fat man in a red suit (as ours normally has) doesn’t help in steering us away from the commercial materialism of Christmas that our culture revels in. Therefore, this year we wanted to ensure that our chocolate-eating and film-watching in December was accompanied by Bible readings that intentionally focus our hearts and minds on the coming of Christ to this world. 

We are simply using the readings provided in the Revised Common Lectionary – 16 readings in total, and we have been taking one a day starting on the 10^th December. Any recommendations for helpful Advent devotional material for future years would be most welcome so please do post in the ‘Comments’ section below.   

Effort to think about Christmas finances honours Jesus

The final aspect of our (very limited) thinking about how we redeem Christmas for Christ has to do with the area of finances. This is very much something that we are just starting to think through and all we have decided so far is that we put a fairly strict limit on how much we spend on one another so that we don’t indulge in the over-extravagance that is unnecessarily pushed upon us during this season. Going hand-in-hand with that is a desire to be financially generous in some way to those who are in need around us, for this surely is another way of living out the generosity God displayed in becoming man. 

What Christmas family traditions have you found helpful?  

What have you learned from others family traditions about making much of Christ at Christmas?