Well, it’s that time of year when everything is crazy!  

Crazy fun, crazy busy, and crazy stressful.  

I know that God did not want His son’s birthday to cause all this stress and busyness.  

Not only that, everyone seems to have forgotten its Jesus’s birthday.  Oh, they say they remember, but then they fight over finding the latest toy for their child, they tell them to believe in Santa and the magic of Santa delivering presents in one night, etc.  

But, I’m not going to get on that soapbox.  

I think it’s great that people all over the world celebrate Christmas, even if it’s not their religion of choice.  

Today, 46% of Americans say they celebrate Christmas as primarily a religious (rather than cultural) holiday.  

This figure is down from 51% who said this in 2013, with Millennials less likely than other adults to say they celebrate Christmas in a religious way.  

I’m thankful that God chose me to live in a country that I can celebrate Christ at Christmas, even if it might not be His exact “birthday”.  

Christmas does bring awareness to Jesus Christ as Lord even though the percentages are dwindling, and it is so commercialized. 

 We as Christians should promote a better way to celebrate the day such as having a birthday cake with “Happy Birthday Jesus” instead of a pecan pie.  

On Christmas day, or Christmas Eve we should talk about Jesus, or read the story out of Luke.  I say, Luke because Luke had a little more detail than Matthew.  

Luke 1–19 (except vs 2) are commonly read at Nativity plays as part of celebrating Christmas. 

I don’t normally like the attention on my birthday; it makes me feel uncomfortable.  I do like the presents though. I know Jesus must love the attention because it is a form of praise when we sing happy birthday to Him.  It shows our faith that He was born.  

Most scholars say we give presents on birthdays, because Mary and Joseph received gold, frankincense and myrrh from the Wiseman, celebrating the birth of Jesus, even though it took them almost 2 years to get to Him.  

Matthew 2:16 tells us that when Herod realized that the Magi had tricked him; he ordered every child under two years old to be murdered.  This gives us a good indication that Jesus was under two or close to two.  

Verse 11 states “On coming to the house, they saw the child with His Mother…”.  

Contrary to popular nativity scenes and paintings, Christ was now living in a house when the Magi visited.  I’m sure Jesus was thrilled that these Wisemen honored Him with these gifts.  Better late than never when it comes to gold!  

I Googled the top 10 ways to celebrate Christmas and the first list that popped up was a great list until number 7.  

The first few were “reflect”, “pray”, “go to church”, “spend time with family”, etc.  

Then number 7 was “create your own crackers”.  What? How did that even get in this list and why would it be number 7!  Then I figured it was probably talking about the celebration crackers, not the edible ones.  

Christmas does provoke a lot of different emotions in all of us depending on if we lean on Christ, or if we don’t believe.  Our faith and hope in Christ make the holidays joyful, even though they are stressful as well.  

Jesus is the reason for the season and I’m glad to celebrate such a birthday.

 

Karen Y. Stevens is founder of Orange County Christian Writers Guild