plankton which stores more information on it than Santa’s scroll and has the capacity to power a small country for many a Christmas future. Go ahead…try to shut me off.When I told my husband recently that my Tuesday morning bookclub (which meets at the Well) is discussing the very timely book titled “Unplug the Christmas Machine,” he looked at me over his bifocals, shook his head like he does when his football team is behind 40 to nothing and mumbled, “It’s hopeless, honey, that will never work.” Those were his exact words except for the honey part, but we’ve been married for 27 years, so I have permission from Mrs. Clause to embellish this time of year. Did I mention that I have direct permission to embellish from Mrs. Clause?
Somewhere there is a twelve-step program for those of us who just can’t get enough of Christmas. Those of us who, when asked to list our favorite Christmas tradition need more time than it takes for a men’s chorus to sing “Twelve Days of Christmas” in a round while foraging the woods for the perfect pine tree singing into walkie talkies. Eyes glaze over as I describe buying ornaments for the kids each year, putting books away for my future grandchildren, setting up my Nativity set collection all over the house, making so much fudge the weight of the sugared fancies causes the foundation of my house to second guess itself. I exaggerate as well as embellish…not sure I have permission from anyone important to do this. I just do, especially this time of year. There’s the annual Christmas light tour, the must-have beef stew and cornbread we eat every Christmas Eve, the Christmas pajamas, the candles, the white lights and the way I get so preachy about such a silly thing, the sweaters…I secretly LOVE tacky Christmas sweaters and snowman earrings and puff paint…okay, maybe it isn’t a secret. It most definitely SHOULD be. I attend every live Nativity scene within a 100 miles radius (hello…road trip with fudge!). I cry every year when the little girl in the movie finds Prancer in her barn. I listen to Christmas music constantly from October through March (the season just doesn’t last long enough). My kids buy me the same Jim Brickman Christmas CD every year because I wear one out every season. I hear them snickering in the breakfast nook about their plans to play this at my funeral.
If ever a woman needed to read the book “Unplug the Christmas Machine,” it’s probably me, except for reasons I hope to continue to explore I don’t ever approach this season with dread or a stressed out longing for an experience that is different from the one that I (along with my husband, Clark Griswold) get to enjoy each season with our family. Perhaps my machine just needs a tune-up.
My favorite Christmas tradition is the church service on Christmas Eve. When we pass the candles and sing “Silent Night”….that seems to permeate everything for me, including the beef stew waiting for us at home after service. Including the presents and the busyness. As I listen to the younger moms in my bookclub I am inspired at the questions they ask of themselves, of their quest to intentionally create holidays which are glistening with the grace of Christ. We teach much this season to the little ones in our midst as we shape cookies and make room on our hearths and in our hearts for joy. There is much “Mary-ness” to the “Martha-ness” of this special season that is ONLY SIXTY DAYS AWAY!
One lesson I have learned over the years….Christmas has taught me this…the less I compartmentalize Christ, the less I compartmentalize Christmas, the less activities in my life don’t fall into the category of religious pursuit. I am not really a “religious” person for the sake of picking and choosing this or that as “celebrates the birth of Christ” or “doesn’t celebrate the birth of Christ appropriately.” I more or less believe that I bring my faith to whatever task I am choosing to undertake for a given day because the promise of the Spirit’s dwelling within me means there is something sacred as well as super-sweet in that fudge I am stirring. The more Christmases I celebrate, the more awe and worship I see in the simplest of things, in the materials of life, if not in the materialism.
After all, the stuff of life, even the human stuff, these were created by God for us to use, and use is sacred. I hope this book helps me to distinguish between use and misuse. It seems to me that defining activities in black and white when we all know Christmas colors are much closer to each other than that…reds, greens, gold…and with the proper touch blues and silvers and plum…this is perhaps the guilt-inducing pressure point that sends Christmas machines everywhere into overdrive and makes us eat too much fudge. We bring some incredibly complicated theologies into our Christmases, don’t we?
I can’t wait to explore all of this with my inspiring and intelligent bookclub ladies on Tuesday mornings at The Well. We are wired by our Creator to celebrate this birth that is never far away from a cross. It’s impossible to separate His coming from His going and His coming again. The newness of the season invites us every time– the sparkle on the snow at a time when God’s earth is declining, and yet for that to be the most tangible promise ever of a new spring. Let there be lights if not on our houses within our eyes…because the Light of the World has come.
-Submitted by Kerri Snell
Come study Unplug the Christmas Machine with us! Join us for Morning Blend - a morning book club for moms at The Well, Tuesdays from 9am to 10am.
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