Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night

Christmas this year was a little different than any other. Jeff and I didn't open any presents or have a big dinner with friends or family. We didn't see a movie or play borad games or do any other "normal" Christmas traditions. The interesting thing about it is when you remove all of our American holiday traditions you realize just how little our celebrations have to do with the purpose of Christmas.

There is a huge movement in the US to remove the word "Christmas" from anything related to the season. What if this weren't such a bad thing? Maybe our father isn't too upset about it. After all, if father really is a jealous father, why would he want to share his son's name with a tree or gluttonous eating? Perhaps, he wouldn't even want to share his name with good things like family gatherings and reciprocal gift giving if those things overshadowed him. Maybe, just maybe renaming a Christmas Tree to a holiday tree and exchanging overpriced "holiday" gifts instead of Christmas gifts might bring to light the real purposes of the day.

Our Christmas celebrations this year began on Dec. 21 when we gave presents to some kids whose Christmas wish was for some milk. These kids are from villages far away from our city and they stay at a youth hostel during the week so that they are able to attend school. Lest you think these are highschool students, they range in age from Kindergarten to 12th grade. It is heartbreaking to see a 5 or 6-year old who only sees his/her parent on the weekend and does not have someone to hug them every day and read them a bedtime story every night.

On Saturday, we loaded up medicines, blankets and school supplies and drove four hours to another village in the mountains. The roads were dirt and impassable during the rainy season. The village has a small school for younger kids and the older kids walk 3 miles every day to attend school. It is solely an agriculture society who use a trade/barter system between the villagers but they are unable to afford basic medicines or school furnishings. The children were so excited to sit in desks to study. Some of them did this for the first time in their lives. One family provided us with a wonderful meal and then we camped with some friends of ours before returning home.

We were able to share a Christmas meal with some friends of ours on Sunday night and the office had a big feast last Friday. We even mailed some small gifts home to our families. But none of those compared with the joy of giving meaningful gifts to people who were truly in need that will never be able to return the gift. Someone once said that the opposite of greed is not poverty but generosity. The purest form of generosity is giving to someone who can never repay. Didn't the first Christmas mark the beginning of the ultimate generosity?

Next year, I challenge each of you to spend a holiday-free Christmas.