Christmas

Sometimes I wonder why such a time of joy, days off, trips and vacations can be so stressful for some families. People get moody and mean during Christmas. I always expected people to be full of joy, thinking positive, enjoying being with family, but all I see is selfish actions, pressure from family members trying to manipulate each other on deciding where or with whom to spend Christmas with. Most of the time, I don’t see any Christian feelings, or even people talking about the fact of Christ’s birth. Seems like Christmas is only for exchanging presents, getting together with family, eat a lot of traditional foods and watch old Christmas movies that most of the time don’t have anything to do with Jesus’ birth. I guess I miss my Brazilian Christmas where we would fast dinner until around midnight, before we eat we would pray with hands together thanking God for sending his only son, so we can have the chance of being forgiven.

 I remember that when I was a kid I didn’t see Christmas as anything to do with religion, but now I think it’s all about thanking God for Jesus and sharing this joy with family. Presents are definitely fun, but why tell the children about Santa Claus when the only one that give us strength to provide work and the possibility of getting presents is our God almighty . I just see Christmas so commercial at this point. It’s so much more about people than about Jesus. When I have my own children I want to make sure they will know where it all comes from.  I will always remind my child that God is the one that gave mommy and daddy strength and work to provide presents and we give present to each other to celebrate Jesus’ birth.

I can see how it’s hard for a 3 year old to be thankful to God for Jesus’ birth, But I can see a child that age being thankful to God for all the presents he/she got that year.