Often lost in all the busyness of the American Christmas season is the tradition that this is the time of year to make merry.  People talk about putting Christ back in Christmas.  I'm not so sure he's gotten left out as much as we've added much more to the whole scene.  The plus side is a lot more people get in on the fun.  The minus is they don't always catch the core message.  Whether that is altogether good or bad I don't know.  I have the feeling that if we work hard enough to put "Christ back in Christmas" by banning all but supposedly Christ-centered Christmas activity, we won't have any more people catching the true meaning than we do now. 

Better to do what we did with Christmas in the first place -- our ancestors supposedly attached divine meaning to a pagan holiday and brought a whole bunch of pagans along with them.  So if we really want to put Christ back in Christmas, we just celebrate the season in a way we think is meaningful and invite others to join us.  No one likes a party pooper, least not those who poop.  Best to make merry for the right reasons and in the right ways and trust that others will see all the fun they are missing.  Seems to be the way Jesus did it with tax collectors, sinners, publicans, prostitutes, the poor and little kids.

This is a difficult year to make merry.  Notwithstanding the hope-filled carol "I heard the bells", we're mired in two wars that don't know how to quit.  A royal downer of an economy (for the second Christmas in a row) is not just hitting the old pocketbook, the stress of trying to rub two pennies together for far too many months compounds daily with little hope of relief in sight.  The impression you can get by listening to some pundits is that those who are struggling have made their own nests and ought to learn how to lie in them.  Whether or not this is true (it isn't entirely), the fact is that the One whose birth we celebrate this month was born to bestow grace and merriment in all of our lives, whether we were naughty (all of us) or nice (none of us).  Christmas is all about God's love coming to us even though we don't deserve it -- and to that we give thanks, not just at the end of November, but throughout the entire year as we extend that grace to everyone else -- whether they deserve it (not) or not (true).

So I plan to celebrate Christ's birth the same way I'd like my own birthday celebrated -- all inclusive, lots of sharing, and tons of merriment and joy.  Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, Happy Holidays and Joy to the World!