Packing Up Christmas

I think we can all agree that putting out Christmas decorations is a much more enjoyable experience than taking them all down and packing them away. As we were packing our Christmas decorations away this weekend, it got me to thinking about why that is. I think a lot of it has to do with the spirit of Christmas that electrifies the air during the season - the spirit of love, of giving, of kindness, of peace on earth. The act of unpacking the Christmas decorations and decorating our houses seems to sort of usher that spirit in every year. Which got me to thinking further…maybe packing up the Christmas decorations isn’t as much fun because, in a sense, we feel like we are packing away that Christmas spirit. Unfortunately, I fear that to some degree, that’s exactly what many of us do. The spirit of love and giving and kindness and peace that just a few weeks earlier had blanketed the world in its warmth, for some reason gets folded up and packed away in a musty box for the first eleven months of the new year. So there I was, sitting amidst the boxes and old newspapers helping my wife pack up the Christmas decorations, and I had one of those “God moments”. Just because the “holiday” is over…and just because Good Housekeeping tells us that we need to have the decorations down by no later than January 10th to be within seasonal decorating protocols, that doesn’t mean we have to “pack away” the spirit that makes the season so appealing in the first place…the spirit of Christ. So this year, instead of packing away the spirit of CHRISTmas in my attic, I’ve determined to be deliberate and intentional about keeping that spirit alive year round. And what a nice thought that is! What if we all made a conscious effort to truly keep the spirit of Christmas alive, by being as loving, giving, kind, and gracious to others the rest of the year as we are during the Christmas season? I suppose that if we did, we would see Jesus’ “kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.” So that’s my number one New Year’s resolution – to keep Christmas out of my attic and in my heart all year long!