A Christmas Declaration

I know it's a little early (as in, 365 days ahead of ourselves) to be thinking of next Christmas, but we're planners and we just can't wait to celebrate again. In fact, I'm holding fast to the celebration of the 12 days of Christmas--I'm just not into feeling deflated and uninspired on December 26th.

I wish I were English so I could at least have the excuse of Boxing Day.

Anyway, the Case side of the family (as in these folks here) have drawn up an official Christmas Declaration for future Christmases. Basically, we want to get away from the hype that is the commercialization of Christmas, and we want to use our gifts for others. So we have all ratified, voted on, and signed a very real decree declaring, among other things, that we will pool our money usually set aside for gifts for each other to give to a charity (a board game is used to decide which charity of choice each year.) One gift per person can still be given, but the gifts must be either hand-made, with little monetary output involved, or recycled/used. Children are the exception, although grandparents are still encouraged to stick to one present per child.

Every seven years, in keeping with Old Testament custom, we will celebrate a Jubilee Year, in which all charity donations are off and we have a regular, gift-glutted Christmas celebration. Oh, and I should say that the whole "no gifts, only money to charity" thing only applies to the extended Case family--Stephen and I can still give gifts to each other and to our children.

Pretty hippy-dippy, right?

I do have to admit that this decision is heavily influenced by my brother- and sister-in-law, who themselves are a little hippy-dippy, while simultaneously very grounded and genuine people. For awhile now, Stephen and I have been working to consciously inject Christ into absolutely everything we do, and we believe a major part of this is represented in how we celebrate at Christmas. We have worked hard to anticipate Christ as fully and excitedly as possible this Advent, and while we enjoyed picking out gifts and giving them this year, we yearn for something more.

So we're going to change it up a bit, and I hope we all stick to it. I don't think it will be too hard to change our practices. Already, as an extended family, we did a lot of hand-made gifts (Janie is an expert knitter) and recycling/reusing items (Ryan got several used books from Stephen). Maybe, just maybe, we'll better ourselves by focusing our efforts on giving to people in need, and maybe, just maybe, we'll enjoy ourselves immensely and feel a little less sickened by the hype that is Christmas in America.