Christmas - A We Need Each Other Story

​Some Christmas shopping facts:

*The average American plans to spend approximately $1,012 on holiday gifts this year, a slight increase from $975 in 2023.

*Projections indicate that total holiday retail sales in the U.S. will reach new highs of $973 billion in 2024.

*A significant portion of consumers anticipate incurring debt due to holiday expenses. Approximately 49% of parents plan to go into debt for holiday shopping, with 65% of them relying on credit cards.

*In 2023, 70% of Americans believed that Christmas was too focused on money.

So why then do we do it? Why do we spend money we don't have on things people don't really want or need when we acknowledge it's not the best idea?

We do it because marketers are good at selling us on the idea that their products can fill the voids in our lives many of us are living with. They've successfully hijacked the Christmas story to sell us the idea that there is greater value in GIVING to one another than there is in simply HAVING one another.

Earlier this year, I watched the heartbreaking scenes on the news from western North Carolina. Entire communities leveled by floods. But there was interview after interview of people standing in the ruins of their homes expressing comfort and indeed relief and overwhelming gratitude in knowing they were still surrounded by people important to them.

In my work, I get to talk to a lot of counselors. Out of curiosity I often ask them, what is the theme of the conversation people most often come to talk to you about? They tell me people most often come to talk about issues they are having with the loss or fear of loss of some ONE in their life, not some THING.

Do you know, 20% of Americans say they won't even like their Christmas gifts; a higher percentage than that say a year after receiving them they won't remember the gifts they got or who they got them from.

But lose a someone close to you in life - some people never get over that one.

That's because the Christmas story is a we need each other story, not a we need things story. Do you ever wonder why God chose to introduce Jesus as a baby in a manger, a tiny baby dependent on the people around him to keep him healthy and safe and growing, just like the baby story of anyone reading this.

I personally think it's because Jesus came to give us a we need each other story.

Too often, I think we hijack the Christmas story and make it a 'we need Jesus to keep from going to an eternal hell' story, when the story Jesus often told was a 'we need one another to keep from living in a daily hell' story.

Whether it's ignoring the marketers or listening to Jesus, I don't much care about the motive, I think there is some value in spending a little less time this Christmas thinking of all the things we need to purchase to make life better, things we and those around us will likely forget a year or two from now, and maybe spend that time clinging a little closer to the people we already have.

If nothing else, it will keep us out of debt.....