Who Needs Christmas?

Bah, humbug. There's tarnish on those silver bells. A white Christmas turns to gray slush as soon as traffic hits the snow. Who needs Christmas, anyway? Aren't you tired of the holiday hubbub? Don't you just want to deck the next person who tells you to deck the halls?

Is a bearded, overweight stranger who wears a red suit, smokes a pipe, overworks his reindeer, and breaks into houses in the middle of the night really the best role model for our kids?

The holidays bring out the jerks as well as the jolly. Crowded calendars and stores swarming with shoppers can ruin our silent nights. Aren't you sick of office parties with their fake smiles and forced frivolity? Do you really enjoy buying gifts for kids who don't say "thanks" and relatives who already have everything they need?

And those family gatherings. You know, where relatives get together to eat overcooked turkey, watch football games on TV featuring teams they don't care about, and pretend they like each other. Who needs that? Isn't there an old proverb that says, "Better to live on the corner of a roof with nothing to eat but fruitcake than to be stuck at the holiday dinner table next to your eccentric uncle"?

Do our holiday church services still produce goose-bumps of inspiration, or have they become bland and predictable? Do our un-churched neighbors really want someone to sing carols on their porch?

Why should this holiday be such a big deal, anyway? The word Christmas doesn't even appear in the Bible, and the holiday season has become so commercialized, pressurized, secularized, and over-emphasized that it's lost its luster. Wouldn't we be better off without it? Who needs Christmas, anyway?

And yet . . .

There's something healing about days off from work and sparkling lights on the tree; about cold snowy nights and steaming mugs full of hot chocolate; about glowing candles and homemade sugar cookies topped with red and green icing, and bathrobed little kids pretending to look like shepherds.

There's something heartwarming about the season's music—from the gentle rhythms of "The Little Drummer Boy" to the majesty of "O Holy Night" and "The Hallelujah Chorus."

There's something soul-stirring about the familiar words of Scripture: "Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel." "And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flocks by night." "For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord."

A holiday open house can be a great time to reach out to a lonely neighbor. An office party provides an opportunity to connect with fellow employees on a personal level and say "thanks." Our family gatherings may not resemble anything Norman Rockwell painted, but they demonstrate God's artistry when we come together with our loved ones under a canopy of grace.

I need all of it—the music and celebration, the time to worship and reflect. I need the change of pace, the reminder to give, the special moments to appreciate my family and friends. I need to ponder what it meant for the Word to become flesh and the virgin to conceive and the mighty Son of God to feel the scratch of manger hay under his naked skin. I need to believe in miracles and hope and peace on earth.

I need Christmas after all. And so, I suspect, does the rest of this weary world.