Faith, Family and Fatherhood
by James Hahn
Additional Catholic Mom
Columns
Keeping
the Holiday Season Right Side Up
I’m sure you’ve heard of the
latest rage for this Christmas season. It’s the newest thing everyone is
talking about and everyone must have. It is an upside-down Christmas
tree. I’m not joking! Hammacher Schlemmer was selling these trees for
almost $500 but now they are sold out. The ad states, “this unique 7'
pre-lit fir is inverted to ensure a smaller footprint for less-spacious
areas, and allowing more room for the accumulation of presents
underneath”
This is a very popular item and many people buy them either for the
shock value or to display ornament collections and I see no “evil”
connection or anti-Christmas message. Instead I see a perfect symbol of
how the culture has turned Christmas upside-down.
Christmas is the celebration of the birth of Jesus of Nazareth who is
not only God’s only begotten Son but God Himself in the flesh. Giving
gifts during this celebration of Christ’s birth is supposed to remind us
of God’s generosity (see John 3:16) and encourage us to imitate our
heavenly Father (see Matthew 5:48). During this season we often place a
pine tree in our home and call it a Christmas tree. A Christmas tree is
meant to remind us of Christ. It is a symbol of Christ. It is evergreen
to remind us of God’s endless love and the gift of eternal life. Its
shape points toward heaven, our true home. Since it is a symbol of
Christ we place our gifts beneath the tree asking for Him to bless them
and accept them because the gifts we give to others are the gifts we
give to Him (see Matthew 25:40).
The culture, however, sees Christmas not as a time of giving gifts in
the name of Jesus Christ to those we love and those in need but a time
of getting. It is a time of material gluttony. It is a time to reinforce
and perpetuate the “one with the most toys wins” mentality. Most retail
stores make approximately 80% of their annual income during this season.
This should tell us that without Christ they would be broke and we
obviously don’t need all of the “must haves” the remainder of the year.
So how do we truly practice what we preach and "keep Christ in
Christmas?" Pope Benedict XVI suggested the simple practice of placing a
Nativity Scene in a prominent place in the home. I have three more
suggestions to not only counteract this materialistic mentality but to
also make Christ the focus of Christmas once more.
First, if you must buy gifts make sure they promote the faith. We almost
always buy gifts for our godchildren and when we do we make sure that
they are faith oriented, learning oriented or both. We try to buy
Catholic Christian books, videos and games.
Second, make your own gifts. Everyone has some natural ability or talent
that they can use to create a gift. It can be anything from a painting
to a birdhouse or baked goods to quilts. Last year our family filled
Christmas tins that we had collected over the years with homemade
biscotti, bourbon balls, Kentucky colonels, candied nuts and chocolate
covered pretzels and gave them to friends and family. This year we will
fill collected glass peanut butter jars with different flavors of
homemade hard candy and give those away along with a few bottles of my
homebrewed beer.
Third, give a gift that has eternal value. On Thanksgiving we always
draw names on both sides of the family to choose who we will be giving
our gifts to. From that day forward we begin gathering spiritual gifts
for the person we have chosen. We say extra prayers like the rosary. We
go to Eucharistic adoration and pray for their intentions. We offer to
God special sacrifices like not drinking coffee for the entire Advent
season or fasting one day a week for the other person. Throughout Advent
we keep that special person close to our hearts in prayer and
continually offer to God all our prayers, works, joys, sorrows,
sufferings, and sacrifices for their intentions. During this time some
of us keep a journal of our acts of love and on Christmas present the
person we chose with a letter or card explaining how we continually
brought them, their intentions and well-being before God during the
Advent season.
This has practice has become everyone’s favorite gift for Christmas. We
cannot help but recognize the power of intercessory prayers offered for
us throughout Advent. It is a powerful, beautiful, gift that no material
object could ever replace. Our cards and letters fit wonderfully beneath
the tree but the gifts that those cards and letters symbolize couldn’t
fit under any tree even if it were upside-down!
11/06/06
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James M. Hahn is currently the Director of
Religious Education at St. Michael Catholic Church in Worthington, OH. He
and his wife reside in southeast OH. with their four children. Visit James
at