Christmas is very cultural in the United States. By that I mean the way we celebrate Christmas has more to do with the way we were raised in our culture than it does with the Biblical meaning of the holiday. Whereas it is important not to lose the Scriptural value of celebrating Christ's birth and the unveiling of God's plan to redeem humanity, I don't think it's necessarily bad to include our cultural nuances into the celebration as long as they don't take center stage. Here are few things from my cultural Christmas that I have come to love each year in addition to the celebration of Christ's birth:
- Movies – National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, Elf, Holiday Inn, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, A Christmas Story, etc.
- Food – Wassail, sugar cookies, fudge, roasts, red and green M&M's, etc.
- Gifts – I love giving gifts to people that I think they will really like but would never buy for themselves
- Music – I think I have over 20 hours of Christmas music on my iPod ranging from Nat King Cole and Bing Crosby to Jars of Clay and Michael Bublé
- Friends – I enjoy spending time with people, and I really like Christmas parties
- Christmas lights – It's fun seeing houses that are tastefully decorated
Those are my favorite things about Christmas. What are yours?
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