Practices From the Inside Out: What is Christmas All About?

What is Christmas All About?

For some of us, Christmas is all about making money. The fourth quarter of the fiscal year is when retail sales turn from the red into the black. Christmas has become the Holiday Season. It is the time of year for sales and shopping. Christmas is the engine which drives the financial train of the economic year.

For other people, Christmas is all about families. They need to make sure they give their families what they want them to have. People want to provide for their families. Some people travel great distances in moderate inconvenience to spend time with their families. We remember family members who have died and the Christmases we spent together.

Many people experience Christmas as a cultural celebration. They enjoy the traditions and revelry. For them Christmas is about trees and decorations, special music and specific flavors. They love watching Christmas movies, visiting Santa Claus, and wrapping presents. People organize parties and secret Santas because that is how we celebrate Christmas.

Some people see Christmas as a significant religious event. For them Christmas is about a baby born in a stable because there was no room for him in the inn. They often have strong opinions about each aspect of the accounts of Christmas in the Bible. Each character, including the animals, plays an important part in the story.

For many of us, Christmas can be a time of darkness, loneliness, and sadness. Our memories and expectations can build up around us and isolate us from other people. Christmas can be a time when family and personal trauma plays out year after year. Some of us can hardly wait until Christmas is over so we can forget about it for another year.

What is Christmas all about?

Christmas and the Birth of Light in the Darkness

Christmas is more than the sum of all these pieces.

We celebrate the spark of new life and light in the darkness. At the darkest time of the year, in our hemisphere, light is born into the world again. The deep spiritual truth is that people living in darkness see a great light.

That light might be a baby born in a stable or the words of a wise teacher of spiritual insight. It may be the light and warmth of our families and friends. The light could be generated by our culture or even financial health.

The essential truth of Christmas is, while we are living in darkness, light is being born in the world. God is with us and fills us with spiritual life. We celebrate the birth and rebirth of that life and light each year at Christmas.

Deep truth can overwhelm us. We may not practice the reflection or contemplation which allows us to accept such deep meaning.

Most of us are taught to think, to analyze, to find solutions to problems. We assume deep truths are complicated and try to work our way through them. It is as if life were full of knots which we are working on untying. We have been taught to believe we can figure out the solutions if we continue working.

It might be we are not using the skills we need to receive the truth.

We are living in darkness until we recognize light is being born. How can we appreciate light born into the world unless we open our eyes?

At Christmas we celebrate seeing light for the first time.

What is Christmas and its life and light going to awaken in us?

How Do We Practice Christmas?

We practice Christmas by recognizing and celebrating the birth of light in our darkness.

As light is born in our dark world we begin to see in new ways. We recognize the spiritual light and life which floods us and fills us.

Practicing Christmas reflects the life and light we find in the world in our daily lives. It is not just being nice to people. It is deeper than whether we say Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays.

Putting Christmas into our own practice is not limited to traditions and expectations.

Reflection transforms our experience into how we put Christmas into practice.

We may decide to follow an established Christmas practice or to try something new. Each year is a new opportunity to practice Christmas in our own way.

Our practice may include attending a Christmas worship service or serving people who need our help. We may decide to watch certain movies or read a specific book for Christmas. We experience the life and light of Christmas in new ways and reflection helps us discern how to put them into practice.

Our Own Personal Christmas

Our experience of Christmas can grow deeper each year. We pay more attention and find new ways to practice what we appreciate.

The light and life we find in Christmas draw us in and fill us. As Christmas grows in us we find new ways to share it with other people.

Some of the ways we practice Christmas involve other people and others are more about our own reflection. Time watching the lights on a tree or a fire in the fireplace can be fruitful time for reflection.

It is a challenge to practice Christmas the wrong way. We try something new and each year Christmas grows in us.

What is essential is practicing Christmas, and other seasons, in our own ways.

I know people who practice Christmas by donating some of what they own to people who need it. They see giving as more consistent with their experience than receiving more.

Some people fill their homes with the aroma of baking holiday food. Others get together to watch holiday movies. I know people who pray for holiday travelers or participate in worship services and holiday programs.

Each of us celebrates new life and light in the darkness in our own ways.

Merry Christmas!

How are we experiencing the life and light of Christmas today?

When are we putting Christmas into practice this week?

[Image by naturak]

Greg Richardson is a spiritual life mentor and leadership coach in Southern California. He is a recovering attorney and university professor, and a lay Oblate with New Camaldoli Hermitage near Big Sur, California. Greg’s website is StrategicMonk.com, and his email address is StrategicMonk@gmail.com.