A look at the traditions of Christmas

Everyone has traditions for the Christmas season. Ask around and you will get a variety of responses.

I know that I personally have a few that immediately come to mind. On Christmas Eve, my family would head to my great uncle’s house for an eclectic conversation featuring thoughts on his burnt popcorn, muses about watching — yet again — “It’s a Wonderful Life” and discussions of his World War II stories, where he was a prisoner of war in a German camp. Traveling to my great uncle Asa’s house was an interesting, yet always fantastic, tradition.

Another tradition I love is my extended family’s Christmas party. Everyone, and I mean everyone, from my dad’s side of the family packs into one of the four siblings’ house for a night of singing, fraternizing and reminiscing about the past year. The party usually brings in 40 or so relatives of mine, and it is always a good time.

And there are other small, quirky traditions that come to mind. On Christmas morning, you do not dare open your presents before your stocking. Our Christmas meal is eggs and sausage, no questions. Mario Kart 64 must be played for an hour on Christmas Day, minimum.

While these traditions are all well and good, when you let them get in the way of the true reason of celebration, no matter how noble your customs may be, it creates a conflict of interest.

We should not celebrate Christmas because it is what we have always done. We should celebrate it because it marks the anniversary of the greatest gift ever given. We should not meet with our family and friends because it is what we have always done. We should meet to commemorate how God has blessed us.

Every year, my father plays a segment recorded by the legendary Johnny Cash called “The Christmas Guest.” Cash narrates the story of a man who awaits the promised appearance by the Lord himself. Three times his door is knocked, and each time he answers it only to see someone other than the Lord, such as a homeless man and a lost child. At the end of the narration, the man laments to himself, wondering why God never showed up. It is then that the Lord answers him, telling him that he did indeed visit him, three times.

I would suggest everyone search for that story on YouTube and give it a quick listen. Christmas gives us the amazing opportunity to display the love of God at the most perfect of times. Do not give because it is the Christmas season, but because of the command of God.

“Whatever you do for the least of these my brother, you did for me,” Jesus said in Matthew 25.

While we can never repay the gift we have received, let us make giving back more than just a tradition.