Prioritizing Christ on Christmas

Since Christmas is in the air, it is worth remembering what Christmas is really all about. It is the time to celebrate and commemorate the birth of Jesus Christ, God incarnate, into this sin-laden world as human being, to finally redeem the sin of mankind by His death upon the cross.
Christmas, the birth of Christ, is really the most precious gift God ever gave us. Without this heavenly gift of the Father’s mercy, none of us can anticipate the promise of eternal life in heaven. Without Christmas, all that is in store for us is death and eternal condemnation.
Nevertheless, for the past century, our focus on the birth of Christ seems to be distracted by the presence of another figure whose commemoration is also celebrated on December. People hang more decorations of Santa Claus instead of Baby Jesus, everywhere around the city, in every city of the world.
(Even the Japanese, who mostly don’t believe in Christ, celebrate Christmas! Try visiting Tokyo on December and you’ll find it decorated in red-white-green-and-gold as much as any city in USA!)
Now, Santa Claus also gives presents, especially to children, and especially to good-behaved ones. They come in sweetly-wrapped gift-boxes, containing toys, candies and treats. Who wouldn’t want to receive such nice gifts on this special month of the year? I believe all children love Santa Claus.
It’s not that it’s basically wrong to distribute presents during Christmas-time. The underlying idea is good enough: “Kids, if you behave, be nice to others and obedient to your parents all through the year, on the last month of the year you’ll be rewarded.”
This is a sort of incentive to cultivate good-behavior in the lives of our children. The problem doesn’t lie on the giving of gifts itself, but rather in the nature of man.
It is only human to regard with more respect the things that are visible over those which are invisible. We want material presents that can be touched with our hands, smelled with our noses, seen with our eyes, and tasted with our tongues. We find it rather elusive to understand the idea of an immaterial gift that will secure our future existence after leaving this material world.
Isn’t that the case?
So, the matter in question here is not whether it is wrong or not to have Santa Claus around on Christmas. What we need to ask ourselves is: what or who are we prioritizing, the gift or the Giver of gifts, the celebration or the One whose birth we are celebrating? First thing first!
We need to understand the reason why we are celebrating Christmas, and understand it to the full! All those celebrations, presents, carols, lights and bells will mean nothing if we do not first accept the gift of salvation granted to us by the Creator of Heaven and Earth. Receive Christ and the gift of eternal salvation first into our lives. Then, we are ready to celebrate and give thanks to God for all His goodness and mercy!