Christmas presence

Christmas has always been one of my favourite times of the year! The preparations, decorations, special baking (the eating of more than the making of!), the holiday feel, gathering of gifts, Christmas music, lights on the tree, Christmas movies, doing the lights trail, opening new pyjamas on Christmas eve, stockings hanging, time with family and friends, the day itself. As much as I enjoy them, I know that these things are all just the trimmings surrounding the celebration of that very first Christmas when love came down, and 2000 plus years on we can still get so caught up in them that our trimmings and traditions can unknowingly become the object of our celebration – as nice as all these extras are!

I’m a trimmings girl – I like pretty things, traditions and all things Christmas! As much as I hate to admit it, I’m guilty of making a bigger deal of the trimmings than of imparting into my kids what Christmas should really be about – God’s gift of love. His love wasn’t just words – it looked like something, his gift of love couldn’t be bought. He gave of himself, he sacrificed. Jesus was ‘Emmanuel, God with us’ – he gave us the gift of his presence. Over the years I’ve used lots of ‘words’ telling my kids about the greatest gift ever to grace the earth, but is that enough? How can I simply tell them about it and then carry on with the Christmas season without those words turning into an action that makes Christmas in our home reflect what we believe?

I’ve learned when we don’t have working Christmas lights – it’s still Christmas, when the powers off (so the lights wouldn’t work even if they did work) and the only Christmas music that fills the house is my 'perfect' rendition of the only two lines I know of ‘O Holy Night’ and getting the kids to sing 'Joy to the World' into my imaginary microphone (I know they deep down just love doing that!) – Christmas will still come on December 25. If we end up having to eat Christmas dinner by candlelight, our tummies will still be filled - and it will be just a bit romantic too! When our tree is decorated not with expensive store bought decorations but lovingly made paper and twig decorations and coordinated red and green water bombs I think I prefer it, especially the time spent together enjoying the company of each other and new friends while making them. We still bake together – even if available ingredients limit the selection and we've eaten all the shortbread well ahead of Christmas (and that was the only baking we did!). Presents will be simple – something to wear, something to read or listen to (thanks christianbook.com, just hoping it arrives before Christmas!) and something to play with. While we’ll be keeping a few family traditions from our home country, we’ll be letting go of others and embracing some new ones from our host country. Christmas day won’t be the same as it has for the last 13 years or so, but it will still be special. Our surroundings and trimmings may have changed, but thankfully the one we're celebrating hasn’t.

Our end of year parties and concerts this year consist of good music, laughs and getting covered in maize flour as we pack a few hundred food hampers with our Jordan House team to give out to bless families in the community we serve in, and our kids cooking up a Ugandan Christmas feast to give out to those that live on the street and other people we know that could do with a bit of Christmas cheer.

This year - working towards a Christmas less about us and more about Him. A Christmas less about presents, and more about presence.