As Christmas draws nearer, America prepares itself for the magic of the season. Lights and trees are being put up, songs and carols of the season are being played non-stop on the radio, and America floods into malls and retail stores everywhere to participate in perhaps the biggest tradition of Christmas. Gift giving! Recently the American retail world celebrated one of their biggest days of the year: Black Friday! The day after Thanksgiving, our society automatically deems it acceptable to begin preparing for Christmas. Stores and companies all around the country drop prices and beginning in the wee hours of the morning, people race to find the best deals they can. It has been calculated that consumers in the United States spent over $1 trillion on November 28th this year. Christmas has become a holiday where, in many cases, some of the only true time spent with loved ones is around the tree unwrapping presents and returning them for better ones the next day.
Since a big part of what TAPP does is about creatively exploring how we ought to live as followers of Jesus, it is important to ask ourselves how and why consumerism has taken over Christmas. Not only that, but how then can we imagine and take place in an alternative way of celebrating Christmas? In order to best look into new ways of celebrating Christmas, we must first look at the old ways. Our first question becomes what was the original purpose of the gift giving tradition? The farthest back one can go is the story of good ol’ Saint Nick himself. Saint Nicholas of Myra was a third century Lycian Bishop, whose stories and myths have been most influential in the modern tales of who we call “Santa Claus“. The most famous story was how Nicholas would anonymously place a gold coin in the shoes or socks of the children at a near by orphanage, who would find them the next morning and thank God for this miraculous provision. Nicholas is known for giving to the poor, and also for always remaining anonymous. Another story tells of Nicholas anonymously leaving dowries outside the window of a poor man’s home so that his three daughters would not have to become prostitutes due to their family’s economic state.
Isn’t it ironic that this story from which the very tradition we now have has with it an underlying message almost polar opposite from what it now is? What does it look like to take our tradition and bring the original message from the original story back to our culture? What would the world look like if that $1 trillion were not spent on empty consumerism, but rather miraculously wound up in the hands (or stockings) of those who needed it? Was this what Jesus was talking about when he proclaimed good news for the poor? What if Nicholas had the right idea back then? The story ofSaint Nicholas is one that we at TAPP hope we can claim and join as we dive into this season and celebrate the birth of Jesus. Let this be an entryway into our exploration of what it means to live in solidarity with one another. Christmas is after all a time where people come together to share in our pains, struggles, laughter, and joy.
