Having a Merry Little Christmas

The Associated Press recently released an article about consumer cutbacks: “Consumers, taking a beating from the worst financial crisis in seven decades, cut back sharply on their spending, pushing retail sales down by a record amount. Retailers are braced for what could be the worst holiday shopping season in decades...”

I suspect that each of us is eyeing this holiday season with a close watch on our personal bank accounts. And as a congregation, we are also weighing carefully our spending as we make plans to celebrate this holiday season and enter the New Year.

I am reminded of the perennial holiday classic, “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas” and the lyrics which are not all that merry. Originally the words were: “Have yourself a merry little Christmas / It may be your last / Next year we may all be living in the past" and "Faithful friends who were dear to us / Will be near to us no more.” Though he initially resisted, songwriter Hugh Martin made several changes to make the song more upbeat. For example, the lines “It may be your last / Next year we may all be living in the past" became "Let your heart be light / Next year all our troubles will be out of sight.” (Source: Wikipedia)

This is important to remember because the Advent/Christmas/New Year holidays are often met with a mixture of sadness and hope, melancholy and cheer, nostalgia and anticipation. Perhaps the memories that you and I can make during the holiday season of 2008 are not ones of over-the-top holiday spending. This may very well be the time for us to focus on the merry “little things” that give this season its greatest meaning.

• Volunteer in a local charity
• Invite someone to join you for worship and then share a light Sunday meal
• Offer to share with someone a talent that you have
• Make your own Christmas cards out of recycled paper
• “Re-gift” something that you don’t use anymore
• Purchase an inexpensive craft at Hilda’s Gift Shop to help third world artisans
• Make a special gift to National City Christian Church in honor of a loved one, and tell them
  
• about your gift
  

This is the season to focus on the little things: the tiny child of God coming to the world in a humble manger, a young man and woman who risked everything they had on an angelic promise, the lowly shepherds making their way through the Bethlehem night to honor the new-born king. Little things, that mean so very much.

So… let us have ourselves a merry “little” Christmas.