by Susan Malotte

Created on: November 23, 2008   Last Updated: November 27, 2008

The question posed "Why has Christmas lost its spirituality?" can be interpreted two different ways. Is this question referring to the worldly view of Christmas or are we speaking individually? Though I feel this question is addressing the world, I'm not sure that a blanket answer, which includes everyone, might not be doing an injustice to those of us who are still spiritually connected to Christmas.

We blame the retailers for being so commercial but are we being fair? After all, they are a commercial establishment and selling is what they do. Retail stores tempt us with glossy advertisements and high tech commercials declaring they have the biggest and best in games and toys, so "Shop us, shop us!" So we shop! Adults love the electronic and tech toys as much as the teenagers and I believe that almost all of us want our children to have bragging rights' that they have the latest and greatest toy, game or electronic gadget available. That's Commercial Christmas. Competitive toy Christmas.

Year after year stores start earlier enticing us with Christmas toys and decorations which start showing up before Halloween. The "hottest" items are marketed with a vicious slant on how to entice us to purchase. We can't help but get caught up in the appeal that advertisers have spent hours working on and we buy, buy, buy!

I am not immune to the commercial side of Christmas and definitely not immune to buying my children gifts and toys. Balancing commercial and spiritual Christmas for me is making sure my children pull a child's name tag off a mall Christmas tree and purchase a gift for that child, we donate to toy collection boxes, we pack holiday shoeboxes for underprivileged children, we attend Church services, we sing Christmas Carols, and we have a family dinner complete with thankful prayers.

The need for a little nudging to stop buying and start really celebrating what Christmas is all about is coming about unexpectedly. The economic turndown has slowed retail sales. This might possibly bring about more people looking to the Church and more people reestablishing a spiritual relationship during this holiday season.

This Christmas the retailers are struggling with sales, unemployment is high so with many people out of work, out of their homes and just simply running low on money, might Christmas just take a shift back to what Christmas is supposed to be about? Maybe families will be celebrating being together, maybe they'll be going to church to restore their souls and find peace, maybe they'll be staying close to home and sharing time with each other. Gifts and presents, usually purchased in a store, might end up being home made and given with love.

This is the year that we could start to restore the "spiritual" in Christmas and change Christmas to what it should be about. We can teach our children about the importance of Christmas and remind them of the gifts that the Magi brought. Tell them the story of Jesus' birth and what it really means and take them to church.

My children have been informed that it's a lower key Christmas, that visiting, loving each other and celebrating Christ's birth is what's happening in our home this year. We will be attending a Candle Light Church service complete with Christmas Carols but we will take our hot chocolate and drive around to see the wondrous light displays people have put in their yards. I think that Christmas 2008 will turn out to be special and we'll be spiritually revived. Isn't it time?

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