Christmas, Trees, and Meaning

If you have never cut down your own Christmas tree from a tree farm, you have yet to experience one of the best Christmas traditions that exists. For much of my life, my mom, dad, and two brothers would cram into my Dad's truck and drive to the nearest tree farm to pick out the best, most beautiful, symmetrical tree possible. Rows upon rows of trees of all sizes would present themselves to us as we stepped out of Dad's red truck.

There is no trick or rush to shopping for a tree on a Christmas tree farm. They don't run out, or wilt because no one has bought them. None of the trees are wilted or packaged like sausage in netting outside of Walmart. They are all beautiful, green and smell like magic. As my family would walk down the rows of trees, measuring pvc pipe in hand, my heart would race in anticipation of the beginning of the best time of the year. Much like has been said about golf, Christmas tree shopping is really just one long walk in the park. You go with the goal of snagging a holiday centerpiece to show off for the month, but end up relishing in the company of those special enough for you to be with on the holidays.

 Upon finding the perfect tree, my brothers and dad would all work together to saw it down. One of them would hold the tree while the other would cut, trying to get the cut nice and level. After slaying your tree and bringing it up front, and they put your prized tree into a device not unlike a retro fat melting jiggle machine. This alarmingly rough handling of your tree is simply to shake off all of the bugs and dead needles. Lastly, they put your tree in a net, you hand the nice man some money, and receive  the obligatory Christmas tree shopping candy cane. I have never been to a Christmas tree farm that doesn't offer you one, and the small gesture is definitely a perfect finish to a wonderful tradition.

Christmas never stops in those fields of fir trees. Year round the coniferous trees stand tall, merely waiting for us to come partake a little slice Yuletide cheer. Despite a lack of traffic during the other eleven months of the year, these fir trees are always green, and constantly smelling of Christmas. Their loyalty and unchanging face throughout the unstable seasons should not go without notice. Yes, they are trees, and I might be stretching here, but I still think we have something to learn. We too should be like the Christmas trees.

This is not news to anyone, though. In fact, I think we might be overdoing it a little. Year after year, another experience I muddle through somehow is hearing the phrase "Jesus is the reason for the season"! (I wonder if Jesus ever thought that his name would rhyme so well with the word season that it would become part of a platitude?) Honestly, it feels as if we as Christians have made it our goal to keep the season sacred and completely acknowledged by anyone who dares partake in the most hallowed of holidays. We are convinced that there is some sort of righteous battle to be fought in the Christmas season.

Any notion that Christmas might have secular influences is taken as blasphemy. Anything less than the two words "Merry Christmas" is an all out attack on the sweet baby Jesus! We must defend our obviously waining right to celebrate Jesus birthday! *sarcasm* But after going through year after year of seeing the body of Christ don this sort of militant mentality, I can't help but to ask, is this really the true meaning of Christmas?

If the heartbeat of the Christian Christmas season has become, "my Christmas is holler than yours! And I will not have my toes stepped on, so let me put up my defenses along with my nativity scene", then I think we are massively missing the point. Jesus came to Earth and was born as a baby because he loved us. Simple as that. Nothing was earned. He wasn't taken back by our good looks and overcome with a need to never be without us. The gift of salvation that we celebrate during the month of December is founded in grace and love. If we opt out of loving others during the Christmas season because we feel that our traditions, ideals, or specific way of celebrating during the 25th of December are being compromised, then our priorities are catastrophically skewed.

What we believe the point of Christmas to be is no mystery to the public. Linus has been quoting scripture to Charlie Brown for a long time. (Close to 40 years, actually!) But if we choose to emulate the love and grace that Jesus showed us that first Christmas morning, then people's ears might actually perk up, and lives could be changed as a result of Jesus birthday.

So let us, instead of approaching the Christmas season in the same way that we have since childhood, try a new take on the treasured day. Let us conduct ourselves in a way that unceasingly puts those that we come in contact with ahead of ourselves. In the pandemonium that is the month of December, let us, the Christians and Christmas fanatics, be the ones that go the extra mile, rather than leaving that to the clerks at the mall. The strangers that we encounter this holiday season matter to God enough for him to have sent his son. I think the true meaning of Christmas would be to follow in suit.

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Happy Wednesday!