Oh, Little Town of Bethlehem

Christmas...

I'm sure if you browse the blog-world, or Facebook, you will find many posts about Christmas, especially the "war" on Christmas.  I have not decided how I feel about this.  It is very interesting in this secular culture how oppressed I have felt in my religion during Christmastime.

I work in retail and have been told time and time again that I dare not say the words "Merry Christmas" to patrons because I may offend them.  Instead, I was to stick to "Happy Holidays!"  I just nodded my head and obeyed.  I would rather not deal with the wrath of my boss... it was easier to just go with the flow of Retail-mas.  Last year, in Europe, I did not even think twice about saying Merry Christmas to people though.  It was so refreshing.  No one contradicted me, no one corrected me, no one felt offended - at least no one that I am aware of.  We talked of Christmas in school and since I went to school with people from all around the world, we discussed how we celebrated it in our home countries.

Unfortunately, Americans have kind of a bad rapp in the rest of the world's eyes.  When I would talk about Christmas, people would usually roll their eyes or get a little grin on their faces.  It turns out that the rest of the world saw me as some materialistic, present hungry, over-spending, cotton-headed-ninny-muggins.  Guilty. As. Charged.

This Christmas, back home, was pretty marvelous.  We did not over-do it... there was no present exchange with the cousins or the need to rush out and purchase things for all of my friends.  Instead, we focused on fellowship and it was wonderful.  I think it's my new favorite Christmas tradition.

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas with your loved ones.

In Him,
xx