The true meaning of Christmas? That's easy.

It is the celebration of the birth of a man named Jesus, thought to be the son of the one Christian God.

It really does not matter if you believe this to be true, or not.

What does matter is how you incorporate Christmas in your life.

Sometimes I wish we were back a hundred years ago, when Christmas was celebrated in frontier homes. A tree was brought inside of the tiny house just the night before Christmas and decorated with hand made, homemade paper, popcorn and things that were found around the house. Gifts that were handmade through out the year, painstakingly made, were joyously brought out from their hiding places and bestowed upon the loved one, a true treasure.

I see homes with the most incredible trees, homes that spend literally thousands on just Christmas decorations, trees done in designer colours and designer fashions and I wonder who they are trying to impress the most. I watch Christmas products hit the shelves right after Fourth of July and wonder what "sacred" means to the world at large. While the lights are grand to see, it does bring about the question of what happened to the original reason for Christmas. Jesus is the reason for the season, truly.

Some time ago, I started a few Christmas customs. Perhaps they would be of interest.

It's about giving, not presents. I heard once the tradition of presents started because Jesus isn't here in body to give a present to, so we give presents to others in his stead. We can go into birthday presents later, in fact I think I did here.  And as far as Jesus not being here, we all have our own personal belief systems. How some ever, what came up was giving a present to someone whose downfallen face said, "I don't have one for you!"  I created or gave a present because I wanted that person to have that gift, not because I was looking for a present in return.

One person, one present. Choose carefully. I really, really like this one. We count seven children and seven child-in-laws, nine, no, ten, (now twelve!) grandchildren, two aunts and uncles, two sisters, two brother in laws,  one niece and her husband and daughter, two nephews, two grandmothers, two neighbors and five gift level best friends. Oh, don't forget four dogs, thirteen and a half cats and a bunnie. Good grief. Bombard them on their birthdays, but leave Christmas at ONE present. The stockings are filled with all sorts of goodies, even for the adult children, but that's Santa's fault, not mine.

Make your present. This standard triples the meaning of Christmas for everyone, the giver and the receiver. Even if it's something very small, it can be made. There are thousands and thousands of ideas out there, from serious construction to Christmas cookies, handmade dishtowels, ties, socks, you name it, something for every age to make. Start in July.

Candlelight Christmas Carols. Nothing in the world like it. Gather before opening presents, at Christmas dinner or before bedtime around the tree. Give everyone a candle, turn off all the lights and sing a carol or two, or three. Take it out doors. Sing louder. Play Christmas music while you bake cookies and decorate the tree.

Attend Christmas Services. You don't have to be religious to get a terribly warm, fuzzy feeling from attending a church Christmas ceremony. You won't regret it.

Break bread together. Again, you don't have to be 'religious' to do this. Call it the sharing of bread. Even if some people at the table look at you rather strangely the first time you do it, it will soon become a special tradition to be continued for years, maybe for generations. Make a special loaf of bread for the Christmas dinner  (that has easily recognizable divisions for easy tearing by hand) and pass it around before any other food is rotated, explaining that you would like to celebrate the joining of the family by sharing a loaf of bread together. My Yeast Rolls recipe with the rolls cooked very closely together works wonderfully.

Give a birthday present to Jesus. Do something for someone else, for a charity, for a homeless person. Give a gift to other than your immediate family and friends. Give it with the full intent to display what Christmas is supposed to mean and absorb the deepest meaning within yourself as you do it.

Find that Christmas spirit in your heart. Keep an eye open during your holiday preparations for something you can do that would normally not. This is tough one to write about. For some unknown reason it drove me nuts to find a little Hmong woman constantly going through our recycling garbage on Tuesday mornings. I rationalized about broken glass, etc, but it was something deeper (and meaner) than that. From then on I bundled recyclables separately, took them down to the center every so often, and ended up with a few dollars. It's bundling time again, I am trying to rationalize the gas I will spend to take this collection in, and realize that the Hmong woman would probably delight to find a huge, already sorted, clean collection of cans and water bottles in a tied up sack. Those few dollars would mean so much to her. It felt so good to put that recycling can out Monday night, knowing she would find the sack. One day, she knocked on my door, trying to thank me for my efforts. This teensy little person, maybe 4 foot tall on a warm day gave me a sincere, warm hug and made my day.

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