Celebrating the Birth of Jesus

Christmas is not just one day on the calendar. It is an entire season. The activities connected to this festive time of year are far too numerous to squeeze into one small calendar square. We have gifts, parties, singing, decorations, family dinners, shopping, stories, greeting cards, festive apparel, movies, and the list goes on. They are like spokes of a giant wheel that rolls through the days until it reaches the long-awaited December 25.

Every wheel needs a hub to hold the spokes together. Merriam-Webster defines hub as the “center of activity: focal point.” It’s our focus, and it influences all the other activities, or spokes, of our Christmas wheel.

Any one of those spokes can become our center of interest because people celebrate Christmas for different reasons. Our activities can revolve around presents or elaborate decorations or social gatherings or family experiences. These are not bad things. The hub simply reveals what our focus is.

I learned in Sunday School at an early age that Christmas is the holiday in which we celebrate the birth of Jesus. Yet, in my young mind, Christmas seemed to be all about me. Presents were piled under the tree for me; a stocking bearing my name contained more gifts; a light-up Santa face shown in our front window every year to light up my face; parties with classmates before Christmas break involved candy and a gift exchange. I was a kid spinning on the hub, enjoying all the fun spokes. Christmas seemed to be made for me.

I’m not sure when the birthday of Jesus began inching along its spoke toward its present position as my hub, but I do remember being greatly impacted by a sentiment expressed by a preacher on TV. He said something like, “Christmas is Jesus’ birthday, not mine. Why do people give me gifts when it isn’t my birthday? Don’t go giving me presents on Jesus’ birthday. Give your gifts to Jesus.” That was the moment I began thinking seriously of how I could honor Jesus on his birthday.

One year, CW was not home on Christmas day, so I decided to bake a birthday cake for Jesus. Actually it was a heart-shaped brownie. (Maybe I didn’t have a cake mix on hand…or maybe it was because I like brownies better than cake and I knew Jesus wouldn’t be eating any of it.) I lit a candle on it and sang “Happy Birthday” to him. I shared with him how grateful I was that he sacrificed so much to come to earth as he did for me. It didn’t matter that we don’t know the actual date of his earthly birth or that he couldn’t eat the brownie; he is pleased that we think of him and celebrate him.

Besides simply remembering Jesus, we can actually give him gifts by doing sacrificial acts for someone in need. Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me” (Matthew 25:40). When we meet the needs of others, we are doing it for Jesus.

Several years ago, I decided to make the things I was doing for others during the Christmas season more tangible. I remembered a dozen small Victorian “cherub” boxes I’d purchased years before to hang on my Christmas tree, but I didn’t know at the time what to put in them. Since I didn’t want to hang them empty, they had hibernated in the attic with other unused Christmas decorations.

Now when I do something for Jesus—by doing something for someone else—I write a “Dear Jesus” note, fold it and tape it (it is for only Jesus to read), put it in a cherub box, and hang it on the tree. When I take the tree down after Christmas, I remove the notes and tie them all together with a ribbon to store with the previous years’ notes.

If you are looking for ways to extend the celebration of Christ’s nativity into the spokes of your Christmas wheel, here are some other ideas you might use or adapt.

• Send gifts in the name of family or friends to meet physical needs of people around the world. Give such things as medical care, access to clean water, or tools and supplies for making a living through an organization such as Samaritan’s Purse or The Voice of the Martyrs.
• Pack Christmas shoeboxes for children who may not receive any other gifts.
• Shop for Angel Tree gifts by choosing a name from a Christmas tree in a mall or in your community.
• Give simple, homemade gifts from your kitchen or workshop. Sacrificing your time represents the sacrifice Jesus made for us.

• Read the Christmas story with your family. Each year discuss the nativity from a different perspective: Mary, Joseph, shepherds, the Magi.
• Attend a special event about Jesus’ birth: a play, musical presentation, Christmas Eve service, etc.
• Sing carols about Christ’s birth. Think about the words you sing. Don’t let your familiarity with them rob you of their richness.

• Make birthday cards for Jesus. Share them with family and display them in the branches of your tree.
• Send Christmas cards that glorify Jesus. There are many to choose from, or you can make your own, that will focus hearts on the Savior born in Bethlehem.
• Display a nativity or other decorations that direct attention to Jesus.

• Volunteer with an organization to serve meals or meet other needs.
• Hang a Christmas Nail in your tree as a reminder of the suffering Jesus would endure on the cross to redeem us from our sin. This was the purpose for his earthly birth. To read the story, click on “The Christmas Nail.”
• Do an Advent activity. It might be a calendar, puzzle, or candles to light. Each day of December it focuses attention on the coming of Jesus with a thought or scripture about his nativity.

We make Jesus the hub of our Christmas season by remembering why he came to earth. We honor him in our holiday activities by showing the same sacrificial love to others that he has shown to us.

Do you have other ideas for how to celebrate the birth of Jesus?

Scripture quotation is from NIV.

Feature photo by Holly Landkammer on Unsplash