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How To Not Miss Christmas

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We’ve all had that kind of Christmas. The one that seems to rush by only for you to look back and feel you missed it all. The one that you feel you are on the Christmas treadmill, checking off the list, racing from obligation to obligation, panting for air.

Then you wonder, did you miss Christmas? Did you show your kids what Christmas really means?

If you are keeping a close eye on your social media feed, you will feel you’ve failed at Christmas. When you see cutesy crafts one friend does. When you see the elaborate home decor of another friend. When you see the friend who is invited to party after Christmas party, and you’ve not received one invite this season.

If you scroll through Pinterest, you will feel unspoken pressure to make new recipes, attempt new projects, do something cuter and more unique than anyone else.

And when you can’t keep up with it all, you can begin to feel Christmas passed you by.

I don’t go to the store much at all this time of year. I don’t much like the crowds, the overspending, the pushing and shoving. But there are times I can’t avoid it. Like when Andrew begs me to take him to use his birthday money to buy a gift for his brothers. I see the buggies loaded with gifts and toys falling out. I’m thinking to myself that our Christmas doesn’t look like that. Before I realize what I’m doing, I begin to think of additional things I can buy my kids. As if I can buy Christmas.

It sneaks in. This pressure of society to do to Christmas what has nothing to do with Christmas.

Here’s the secret to not missing Christmas. The absolute certain way that you will not miss it.

It’s to remember this. Christmas isn’t a day or a season. 

The true spirit of Christmas can’t be wrapped in a package. It can’t be decorated fit for a magazine. It can’t be dolled up and posed for pictures.

Christmas is the gift of God becoming man. Heaven coming to Earth. To die. So we can live.

So if you fail to get the perfect Christmas picture of your kids. If you fail to make cookies or a gingerbread house. If you forget the teacher gifts or sending out cards. If you never got to watch the Christmas movies. If the tree never gets decorated or the lights are never lit outside. If the Christmas projects fail. If you buy your gifts and feel they don’t compare. If your Christmas dinner isn’t perfect and is burned instead. If your home decor is hodge podge compared to the amazing images on Instagram. If some of your traditions didn’t take place. If all of this combined, Christmas is still yours if you have Christ.

Christmas isn’t a day or a season. It’s not bought in a store. It’s not baked in cute tins. It’s not posted online.

Christmas is the gift that came and that is alive every single day.

So if you feel your season is setting up for one big failure, here’s the secret to making sure you don’t miss Christmas.

It’s to change the way you look at Christmas. It’s to dig down through the clutter. To get back to the basics. To rediscover simplicity.

Everything we do to make Christmas what it is in America is an add on. It’s a bonus. It’s not what makes the holiday the holiday. You can’t take away what He did. That gift came. That gift remains. That gift is celebrated at Christmas, yes. But that gift is to be celebrated every single day of our lives.

Give yourself a gift this Christmas. Release yourself from the pressure to create the perfect Christmas by changing the way you view Christmas. When we remember that Christmas is alive everyday, we realize that no matter what our season looks like, we can’t miss Christmas when we look to the cross.

Everyday is Christmas. Everyday is Easter. Everyday is Thanksgiving. Remembering this is how we let go of the pressure of “the day” or “the season”.

No matter how behind you feel you are, it’s never too late to capture the true spirit of Christmas. Right now.

You don’t need any supplies, no materials, no planning. You need one thing and one thing only.

God’s Word.

Open up the Bible. Matthew 1-2. Luke 1-2. This is a good starting place and you can sit with these verses and these chapters for days.

If you are feeling overwhelmed by Christmas and all that accompanies this time of year, maybe this is a good time to push everything aside and pull out His Word. Focusing our hearts on this story of Christmas, with nothing fancy to distract. Sometimes it’s the very thing we need.

When I sat down to write today’s post, I’d intended to write about some of my favorite resources that you may love. And I still plan to post those for you. But as often He does, the Lord changed what I’d planned to write for today.

It’s funny when He does that. He’s so unpredictable and unconventional. I wrote a Christmas devotion. I have a window of about 6 weeks out of the year I can market and sell my book, yet today, I felt the Lord leading me to share with you the simplicity of going to His Word. Rather than pointing you anywhere else, just pointing you to His Word.

And you know what? It might be the very thing your soul needs today. I believe it’s the very thing I need today.

So for today, release yourself from the burden of creating the perfect Christmas. Inhale. Exhale. Open His Word. Read His Word. And remember, He is Christmas. Because He is Christmas, if He is in you and you are in Him, you can’t miss Christmas. Even if no decoration goes up, no gifts are bought, no parties attended. If you have Him, you can’t miss Christmas.

If you are reading my blog, you are in my prayers. I love you from the bottom of my heart, you are the reason that I write. I pray the Lord blesses your Christmas season as you focus on Him and Him alone. He is all we need.

Much love,

Renee

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