what Christmas means to me

Christmastime is driving around to look at Christmas lights on houses and yards. It is hot chocolate and too many treats. Christmastime means singing Christmas carols and listening to the same Christmas songs in about a hundred different versions over and over because they are just that good. Thinking of family and friends and figuring out what I might make or buy for or give away to them to  manifest my care and love, that is Christmastime. Wrapping the presents and putting up the Christmas tree and all the ornaments, sitting by the lit up tree in the otherwise dark room just being quiet, watching It's a Wonderful Life and Scrooge (1970) every. single. year. because they are just that good, these things make it Christmastime for me.

All of those delights set aside, I will tell you that Christmas would be nothing but a month-long party without the most important part—a renewed/continued/focused/improved remembrance of Jesus Christ and what he did for us. He was born that we might live again eternally despite our imperfections, our sins, our shameful acts. He suffered in the Garden of Gethsemane for all of our sorrows and sins because he loves us. When Jesus was born, he began the journey of saving of our souls, and that is why I celebrate so fervently with so much joy and hope and love no matter what is going wrong in life. His beginning is the beginning of our salvation.