Christmas is celebrated in the dark, cold, dreary winter. The grass is crunchy. The deciduous trees are leafless. Our sun sets too early, leaving us in darkness for the better part of the day. Life itself seems to have migrated south with the birds. Christmas, for those who celebrate it, seems to bring about more negative emotions than positive ones. Feeling obligated to spend exorbitant amounts of money, stress from dealing with family, along with the changes in our surroundings tend to drain the Christmas Spirit right out of most people. In its place, we are filled with emotions that can me summed up in three syllables: “Bah! Humbug!”
We all know that phrase from Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol; it was an expression uttered by Ebenezer Scrooge. This is indubitably the most recognized use of the word, and, fittingly, it is used to express The Scrooge’s feelings toward Christmas. But do you know what the word “humbug” means? No, what it really means? The first known use of the word was in 1751, and one of its first known meanings is defined in the Merriam-Webster dictionary as “something designed to deceive and mislead.” Is this not one of the most appropriate words to describe Christmas-induced materialism, consumerism, and commercialism? We have been deceived into believing that in order to celebrate and enjoy Christmas, we have to spend ourselves into frazzled messes of deflated hopes and empty bank accounts. What’s worse? We are perpetuating this deceit with our children, and it is only getting worse with each passing generation.
Humbug also means “nonsense; drivel.” While we associate those words, especially drivel, with speaking, let’s not forget that nonsense can go beyond the spoken word. Is this not what we have filled our most sacred Christian holiday with? Have we not replaced our most cherished holiday traditions with trifles? TRIFLES! We are so busy with the things that don’t matter that we seldom take the time to consider why we celebrate Christmas anyway. We worry ourselves into misery with petty things like how impressive our tree looks that we don’t enjoy decorating it. We spend Black Friday getting so irritated at people running over our toes and shoving us to get the “it” item that we completely forget what a joy the gift-giving tradition actually is. So much energy is put into outdoing neighbors and family members with gifts and decorations that we are too wiped out to simply take delight in what is really a wonderful season. I used to be very picky about gift wrapping. No, I couldn’t afford fancy bows or other superfluous embellishments, but it used to be important that the gifts looked nice. Then, Asia got old enough to want to wrap. Last year, I relegated her to holding the tape for me and picking out a bow. This year, however, I realized that it really doesn’t matter how that box looks. No one is going to care, but me. I let her wrap some all by herself. It’s obvious which presents under the tree were wrapped by Asia: they are the most beautiful ones. They are beautiful because all of the wrinkles in the wrapping, the extra tape, the excess paper sticking out in jagged edges at the corners of the box were wrapped by a child with unwavering Christmas spirit. They were wrapped by a child who truly enjoyed each minute of that tedious work: a job most of us dread. That’s what makes Christmas special. Having perfectly creased paper, sharp edges, and legible name tags are just trifles. These are magical memories for a child. Those memories will last so much longer than the wrapping paper.
Another definition of “humbug” is an “insincere person.” Is this not also an appropriate definition? “Merry Christmas” seems to be an automated greeting that comes out of our mouths during the official Christmas season. Do we actually mean it? When your cashier wishes you a “Happy Holidays,” do you think she really cares? Do you? When you send out Christmas cards, do you really hope all of those people have a good Christmas or were you just wanting to show your friends and family that you may or may not care much about how amazing your family picture looks? Don’t be a humbug! Try to dig down to that place in your soul where sincere care comes from, the one that has become so calloused. I wouldn’t want to get a gift from a person who only got me a gift because he felt like he had to. Would you?
The next time you feel like sneering at a Christmas tree and growling, “Bah! Humbug!” it probably won’t be unwarranted. But hopefully now you’ll look deeper into the meaning of that phrase and the meaning of Christmas itself. Try to get back to that place of joy, whatever it is that brings joy to you. Let your kids decorate the tree even if all the ornaments end up on the bottom half because they can’t reach the top. Let them shake a gift or two. But please don’t let them be deceived into believing that Christmas is about all of those things that don’t really matter.
If it’s the weather that’s getting you down, consider this: The fact that Christmas is celebrated in the dark, cold winter is symbolic. It is a holiday that brings warmth in the cold, light in the darkness, and life to a frozen land just the way God sent Jesus to bring hope to the world in a time when things seemed hopeless. That is what Christmas is about, after all. The rest is just trifles.
I wish you all a MERRY CHRISTMAS… and I mean it, too!
