Have Yourself a Sturdy Little Christmas

The cards. The baking. The decorating. The shopping. The gifts. The clothing. The caroling. The calories. The nativity play. The parties. The tree. The family get-togethers. The office get-together. The church services. The neighbor cookie plates.

How many things are on your list?

For many people, Christmas spells S-T-R-E-S-S!

If we don't do it all--and do it perfectly--will we ruin Christmas? For us or for others--which one bothers us more?

Over the years, I've learned to do some things to reduce my Christmas stress. Aspects of poverty and illness have forced me to. Most of these things could boil down to simplifying and doing things ahead.

I've forgiven myself--well, sort of--for not sending Christmas cards for several years running, and counting. Maybe next year.

While listening to the Church-wide devotional Sunday, one word caught my attention. President Uchtdorf said that Christmas is sturdier than we think. Sturdy. I like it!

Christmas has, after all, endured all these years. If I don't have the time, health, or means to do some part of Christmas, it won't go away. Other people are keeping up the traditions I've temporarily dropped. They'll still be there when I'm ready to pick them up again.

My thoughts lit happily on that word, sturdy, and then they went even deeper. What is Christmas, anyway? Is it the cards? The songs? The parties? The tree? All of those things are simply ways to celebrate what Christmas is. Christmas is a celebration of the most--maybe only--completely perfect gift ever given: the gift of a Savior to redeem the people in a darkened world. A gift so miraculous that no one but God could ever pull it off. A gift so perfect that no one needs to--nor can--improve upon it. No one can add to or detract from it one bit. No one can stop it from being given. It was given. Perfectly. Whole and complete. For everyone who ever lived or ever will live on the earth.

So, the things we do at Christmas time are all options for celebrating that gift. Some are perfect and miraculous in themselves. Some are generous. Some are merely well-intentioned. But they are all meant to help us remember God's gift to us and find joy in our knowledge of that. All of our Christmas gifts, songs, parties, and offerings put together can't make up Christmas. They only reflect it. Imperfectly. And that's okay, because that's the best we can do.

The best we can do to celebrate Christmas at a given time is perfectly okay. No stress necessary.

Maybe, just maybe, it's actually. . .arrogant of us to think we can ruin Christmas.

Let's do what gives us joy without giving us stress, and then sit back and enjoy it.