Christmastime is once upon us - it means waiting for Amazon deliveries and hearing the same five Christmas songs on the radio. You might even sing along with the songs by now, which is either a good thing or a bad thing, depending on what song it is. I prefer to turn off the radio when I hear Andy Williams start singing "Happy Holidays" like the scatcat that he wasn't. I do love the "12 Pains of Christmas" when it comes to Christmas tunes.
I won't quote the lyrics but give it a listen, if you want a good laugh. The song is a nice take on the traditional "12 Days of Christmas" song that gets as much air time as Andy Williams when it comes to annoying and overplayed Christmas songs.
Honestly, Christmas is about finding the right gift and the stress to find the perfect gift. There is nothing worse than the look of disappointment on your significant other or anyone else you purchased a gift for and seeing their face filled with disappointment. "Gee, I always wanted an autographed picture of Brett Favre." There is a lot of pressure on us to buy the right gift. Come on, who doesn't want a picture of a Hall of Fame quarterback?
The problem is that the very first Christmas Jesus got gifts from complete strangers. These strangers brought gifts that seem fitting for a baby. Jesus got gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Gold is always a good gift. Frankincense makes sense because little kids stink and the myrrh can be used to calm a baby that is teething. Those guys knew how to shop.
Christmas time should never come as a surprise to us, but it seems that much thought isn't put into shopping for gifts until the last minute when most stores are picked over and it will cost you a small fortune to mail your gifts. You can even pay a little extra to get the gifts wrapped because we all know the struggles that gift wrapping can cause on the sensitive psyche of the Christmas gift giver. Gift wrapping should be a required class in high school because it can make or break the gift giving experience.
It is getting late in the Christmas season and some people are playing it cool and waiting to save a dollar or two, but just remember that there are people that have all their gifts purchased and wrapped so perfectly. They can now enjoy the rest of the Christmas season because they are prepared for anything that will come their way in the next seven days of shopping. They don't have to even go to the crowded stores to shop because they can now go and taunt the shoppers looking for the gifts that are no longer on the shelf.
The bar was set high by the Wise Men when they gave money and practical gifts, but their lesson is lost because the evil marketing geniuses make us feel that practical is impractical when it comes to Christmas gifts. Modern man doesn't even know what practical gifts look like because of the constant commercials and ads telling them a woman wants expensive gifts and men want expensive cars.
Yes, right now there is a man looking for the perfect gift for his wife or girlfriend. His natural tendency is to go to Home Depot, but the little voice in his head tells him that he needs to go somewhere where they sell jewelry. He panics and goes to WalMart and gets more confused. He will end up buying something that he thinks is practical and thoughtful. This poor man forgot all the important hints given to him back in February when his wife or girlfriend specifically said what she wanted to have for Christmas, but he was too busy thinking about what he wanted on his pizza. He won't understand why his wife or girlfriend is upset at the gift.
So this Christmas when you give out your gifts and get the look of sadness. Don't forget to remind people that Jesus was happy with practical gifts. He would love a picture of Brett Favre.
No comments:
Post a Comment