In defense of giving gifts at Christmas…
Christmas has become a consumeristic machine. Most of us are aware that barely concealed beneath Santa’s jovial “Ho! Ho! Ho!” is the message “Buy! Buy! Buy!”.
Yes, Christmas with all its consumer and material emphases has come a long way from the simple manger in a small Judean town. And as Christians we often like to critique this consumer aspect of Christmas. Rightfully so at times. I jump on that self-righteous band-wagon often enough myself! There is certainly a dark side behind all the bright lights and gold-wrapped gifts.
But I came across an interesting defense of why we should celebrate giving gifts at Christmas. Marilynne Robinson, in her book The Givenness of Things, says the following:
“The reality of Christmas is this — people mob the stores looking for gifts to give to other people. All this is swept into the broad category of consumption so that we can speak of it as if it were greed and self-indulgence in an artificially heightened state. It is really inflamed generosity. All those people are thinking about what someone else might want, need, look good in, be amused by. This by itself must be a valuable discipline.”
The entire phenomenon of Christmas is kind of crazy. For instance, did you know that the traditional day when the Magi actually gave their gifts is celebrated on January 6, the festival of Epiphany? If everyone bought their gifts for January 6 instead of December 25, we’d benefit from all the Boxing Day sales. Economically, liturgically even, it makes more sense! But there’s something about this Christmas that is only secondarily about “stuff”. Primarily, we set apart a particular morning for this ritual of giving and receiving — of “inflamed generosity”.
Robinson asks how an alien might view this craziness:
“A Martian might conclude that these evenings and mornings focus benevolent feelings that would otherwise be unexpressed, unacknowledged or merely routine. Families tend to provide, but Christmas reminds everyone that there is joy in it.”
Ok, so these “benevolent feelings” don’t necessarily justify the rampant consumerism of Christmas. But at the same time, I’ve been challenged to rethink the culture of giving and receiving gifts. For Robinson, there is grace in it. Concluding her chapter she says:
“I suppose I might have been expected to speak about grace more theologically, when it is perhaps the major term in my religious tradition. But by my lights I have spoken theologically, since everything depends on reverence for who we are and what we are, on the sacredness implicit in the human circumstance…we know how profoundly we can impoverish ourselves by failing to find value in one another.”
Marilynne Robinson, author of “the Givenness of Things”
At its best, giving Christmas gifts is about this. Reverence for who we are. Finding value in one another. The sacredness of human life. Inflamed generosity. And this is surely found in the manger. Jesus Christ, the crowning example of the “inflamed generosity” of God.
So may you know God’s generosity this Christmas. And may you overflow with that same generosity.
Merry Christmas!