The Holidays

I have a love/hate relationship with the holidays. While I love the season and the reason for it, I get very tired of what both Thanksgiving and Christmas have evolved into.
Thanksgiving is meant to be a time of saying thanks, to God and others, for our blessings. It seems, at this point, to be more the day before the first Christmas shopping day we call Black Friday. Christmas is not celebrated as the birth of our Savior as much as it is a time for exchanging gifts and waiting for the arrival of a man wearing a red suit. While this should be the celebration of the coming of our Savior, it is more now a days a celebration of tradition - some good and some bad.
Christmas, which I have always felt should be a time of reflection and awe, has become a hectic, out of control plant with  materialistic roots. I do not even think that many realize why we give gifts at Christmas. The idea that we exchange gifts as a way to remember God's greatest gift to us and the fact that the traveling wise men honored the birth of Jesus with gifts seems almost foreign.
Christmas, I am afraid, has lost its meaning.
So, what to do about this problem? I feel with all my heart that it can be fixed if those who know Christ as their Savior would choose to refocus their hearts and the hearts of their family members to celebrate the true reason for the season. Jesus should be the center of all that we say and do, always, but especially during the time we pause to thank God for sending His only Son to earth to pay the price for my sin and yours.
If all who know the true meaning would put our focus more on the manger scene and less on a velvet red sack filled with toys and credit card bills, then things could change. At our house, we have the nativity scene set up front and center under the tree and it stays there to remind us of the purpose of it all.
God had a similar reaction to "religious" celebrations in Old Testament days. In Isaiah 1, verse 14, God declares - "I hate your New Moons and prescribed festivals. They have become a burden to me; I am tired of putting up with them." I would imagine that God has a similar reaction to our modern holidays. In those days the "religious" festivals and celebrations had turned into something different, often losing their meaning all together. I feel that we are heading that way with our sacred holidays today as well.
So, this holiday season I challenge you to make these days "holy" days, that is how we get the work holiday by the way, for you and your family. Focus on what is truly important and push aside the things that do not matter in the long run. I don't have a problem with Santa, but he should never come before the one whose birthday we are celebrating.
Celebrate and remember true meaning this season. Merry Christmas! Happy Thanksgiving!