Ordinary Eve
"Set your affections on things above, not on things on the earth" Colossians
When I was a child the highlight of my whole the year was waking up on Christmas day morning. I was excited and amazed that Santa had slipped into my bedroom without my realising and filled my stocking with goodies ranging from chocolate money to yo-yos and strawberry-scented erasers.
What a contrast between the innocence of our kids and the way we struggle through shopping malls now with plastic bags ballooning out from each hip as we succumb to the seasonal pressure of modern consumerism. Every year the retailers boast 'present of the year'. This year it is Argos robot. Get one. Everyone else has.
The strange thing is that, though it may be the most important thing in the world for a parent to buy the latest toy for their little ones, the little ones themselves would probably be just as happy with the packaging!
Call me Scrooge, but I particularly don't see the point of buying Christmas or birthday presents for 1 year olds.
Cards, yes. They give 'dextrous' hands the chance to experience the pleasure of ripping. And, they are guaranteed a colourful picture at the end of it. Presents, however, are totally inappropriate in the first year. No one year old has a clue about Christmas. OK, they love to hear you singing a tuneful Christmas carol but the buck should literally stop there. Baubles, like everything else are for pulling off and putting as far as possible into the mouth.
Once they are two, OK. Now they can recognise Santa in books and grow excited at the prospect of seeing grandparents and cousins at the family get together. Even then, however, they don't really understand the association between Christmas and present giving. They simply feel the electricity of the build-up to a big event.
But, for all my Scrooge-like tendencies and logic my attempts at remaining material free at Christmas are by no means foolproof. I couldn't resist buying a £20 Barbie doll on Saturday when actually a £6 book would have done the trick just as well. And the quantity of presents becomes a pressure on parents as much as the quality. Is a present required from each parent and each sibling rather than one from the family as a whole? And what about the moggy? Where do we draw the line? Remembering that with young kids the first present is always the best and the others more often than not represent stuffing makes it easier to focus on the less materialistic side of Christmas.
It's easy so easy for grown-ups to forget the reason Christmas is in our diaries in the first place. But if we focus more on the kids (and less on what we're going to get the kids) the love and joy represented by the miracle of God's love for us at Christmas gets a chance to filter through the tinsel and wrapping paper.
Last year, we built ourselves a nativity to go on the mantelpiece over the fireplace. There was the manger and crib with a shooting star over the top. Mary and Joseph were standing by with the shepherds tending their flock and the three Wise Men. I must have read the Christmas story on average three times daily throughout December. It became almost an alternative to the rosary. This year we are going to do the same although the paper nativity scene also consists of an Advent calendar.
It is every parent's duty to avoid the trap of over-indulging children. It is good for nothing and bad for your pocket. Though they may not understand what Christmas is about they far more adept at enjoying Christmas simply and so we can actually stop worrying about the price we think we should pay for that Barbie and focus more on the price God paid for us because he loved us even more than we can love our own kids.
