Tradition!

One of my favorite movies of all time is "Fiddler on the Roof".  I was thinking about that movie this morning, which might seem an odd thing to be thinking about just a week before Christmas.  Actually, it's one particular song in that movie that has been in my thoughts this morning......"Tradition!"

One line from the song says, "How do we keep our balance?  Tradition!"

How do we keep our balance?  Many find themselves looking for an answer to that question at this time of the year.  With all the cookie baking and decorating and gift wrapping and parties and all the activities of the season, it is often hard to find the right balance.  Factor into the mix the added stress of terrorist attacks and political rhetoric, and we are even more off balance.  And when you add in strained relationships and illness and financial stress, our lives become even more off kilter.

Finding the balance is perhaps more important at this time than at any other.  It's all too easy to get caught up in the commercialism of Christmas.  Wanting to buy everything we see in television ads and in the mall.  Wanting to bake - and eat! - everything we have seen in magazines and on Pinterest.  Wanting to attend every Christmas play and every choir presentation and every party and every family get-together.  Wanting to be everything to everybody.  It's exhausting!  And impossible!

Over the years we've established a few non-negotiable traditions in our family.  One of them is that we spend every other Christmas together.  In the "off" years, like this one, we spend Thanksgiving together.  That has worked out well for us over the years, even though it means that at Christmases like this one, I really miss my sons and grandsons and daughters-in-love a lot.  A lot!

Many years ago we began a tradition of baking a birthday cake for Jesus.  That tradition continues to this day, and is one of the ways we have kept the focus on Jesus during the season.  A nativity scene has always been a prominent part of our Christmas decorations.  These days, it's the one we bought on our most recent trip to Israel, and it's made of olive wood from Bethlehem.

Yes, we enjoy our Santas and our snowmen, but for us, Christmas is about Jesus.  About celebrating His birth.  Christmas is a time to focus on Him.

Listening to carols about the birth of the Christ Child.  Reading Scriptures about His birth.  Especially reading from Luke's gospel on Christmas Eve.  Those are just a few of the ways that we keep things in perspective during this hectic time of the year.  It's how we keep the right balance.

I'm sure you have your own Christmas traditions as well.  Certain things you always do for Christmas.  Certain foods you always eat.  Certain cookies you always bake.  A favorite ornament or decoration.  A favorite carol.  A favorite activity.  I love hearing how people celebrate Christmas, how they celebrate Jesus, every year!

Every year it seems that Christmas in our world is less about Jesus and more about everything else.  Less about Jesus and more about shopping and eating and partying.  Less Christmas and more Happy Holidays!

How sad that is.  Because Christmas is all about Jesus!

"Why can't Christmas just be Christmas?

Why must we change it so?"

(-Christine Wyrtzen)

Listen to "Tradition!" here:https://youtu.be/sWSoYCetG6A
Listen to "Why Can't Christmas Just Be Christmas" here:  https://youtu.be/Tb1Gk99G-TM