Christmas is coming

Have you been naughty or nice? Santa’s on his way, ya know 😉

I heard today of some people who were naughty. I’m not talking the victimless-crime type of naughty, either. I’m not inclined to talk about the details, but let’s just say I hope Santa brings them a one-way trip to justice…

And ya know, I never hope the worst for people, but when it’s a friend who has been hurt (quite measurably), it’s hard to wish the criminals well. These are the kinds of things libertarians can agree on, generally speaking. Victimless crime is one thing, but aside from the 2nd Amendment ‘community’, I don’t hear much talk about dealing with -real- crime. And unfortunately, it’s out there, even at Christmas time. How tragic.

Now, for those of you who have been nice, I’m hoping Santa brings you just the right gift. It’s funny, though, we all seem to focus on the material things that Santa brings. Why don’t we wish something better for Christmas? Really, stuff is just about worthless. Even expensive stuff is just stuff. For years now (and I’m not that old, mind you), I’ve been telling people to quit getting me stuff. I have too much stuff already. Stuff is a curse. We built a big house just to put all our stuff in. Well, okay, that’s not entirely true, but you can hardly walk in the basement.

Somehow, the modern-day American Christmas has turned from a gift into a curse. Rushed holiday shopping, lots of January bills, junk to clutter up the house, Christmas lights that will wind up eternally tangled in some box somewhere, parties with people you’d rather not party with, plastic Santas, the whole works.

A year or three ago, my wife proposed an idea to me which we’ve found very valuable. Now that we have kids, it’s (partly) our job to figure out what to get them for Christmas. Somewhere along the way, she read a story about a family that reevaluated Christmas and wound up with this novel plan.

According to Biblical accounts, the wise men brought Christ gifts which were physical (material) but valuable. They were gold, frankensense, and myrrh. Not only were they valuable, but they were symbolic (here’s a page about it if you care to read it: http://www.webedelic.com/church/goldt.htm ). This is generally considered the ‘reason’ we Christians give gifts at Christmas.

Though there are probably multiple interpretations of the significance of those gifts, this family had applied it in the following fashion. Instead of just giving a zillion meaningless gifts, they would give their kids three gifts and only three gifts at Christmas – one for each of the gifts the wise men gave. Their ‘gold’ gift would be something more expensive – an item to be treasured. Their ‘frankensense’ gift would be something that would help them relate to God. Their ‘myrrh’ gift would be some sort of bodily adornment. Not only do these gifts then have symbolic meaning, their meaning is tied to the gifts Christ was given on the first Christmas.

So my (first) gift to all of you is this idea. We’ve done it the last few years and, miracle of all miracles, the kids haven’t died for lack of stuff yet 😉 It’s practical, meaningful, and if your kids are old enough, it can be a way to teach them about having a meaningful Christmas.

V-