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One of the ways to maximize the Christmas spirit and have an amazing holiday, is to put partying aside and enjoy family time instead.

It’s not very hard to find advice for students on how to survive Christmas: don’t dip into your tuition money, be creative by making a gift or by promising to take a family member on a day outing. If you feel the need to buy gifts for yourself, try waiting until after Christmas to take advantage of sales.

Such Christmas survival techniques are the result of Christmas being about spending. From Black Friday to Boxing Week, advertisers tell us to spend like there is no tomorrow, or at least to spend like tomorrow won’t include a bill from Visa or Master Card.

Yet, often the more we get at Christmas, the less grateful we become. We discover that the satisfaction of getting stuff we really don’t need and therefore don’t value is short lived and shallow.

How should people celebrate during the Christmas holidays? Here are a few tips that hopefully will be of help to you this year.

First, stay alert. Don’t waste any of your time being drunk or high, instead savour the time you have, time with your family or friends. Appreciate the good things you see in each person and tell them what you see in them.

Second, look for unconventional ways of giving gifts. Many churches have alternative gift catalogues where you can make what will at first sound like weird purchases. For example, instead of buying a $70 shirt for your cousin, you buy a goat and four chickens for the same amount. They will go to a family in say, Honduras, who can then feed themselves and sell any extra eggs or milk on the market. You can give the goat and chickens in someone’s name. Hopefully they won’t mind too much that they didn’t get the shirt.

This brings me to a little warning: if you are shopping for kids, they might not always appreciate this alternative. So be prepared for a little push back, and don’t be too strict about the whole thing.

Be prepared to see your family grow through this experience. Little kids especially will soon appreciate that it is good to think about the reality of life for people living in less wealthy countries. They will, more quickly than many think, understand how so much of what we need is really about what we want.

Third, try to get to a church where the story of the birth of Jesus is a real cause for celebration. An Anglican or Catholic Church can do this well. Many young single Londoners and families find the innovative services at Forest City Community Church to be just what they are looking for.

Finally, remember that the story of Christ’s birth was not as tidy as many Christmas cards and popular images have it. Jesus was born into the Jewish community 2,015 or so years ago, a time when Roman oppressors governed Jews. His mother, Mary, had to travel on foot or maybe on a donkey pretty much up to her due date.

When she and her husband, Joseph, arrived at their destination there wasn’t any accommodation that would take them in. So the birth took place in a barn at best, or in a shed or alleyway, where Mom and Dad had to improvise, using a feeding trough for a cradle.

And within a short time of Jesus’ birth, he and his parents became refugees. They fled from the wrath of a bloodthirsty ruler named Herod. He wanted to nip in the bud any interest in the birth of a child whose simple Jewish folks might later turn into a popular leader. He did not know the idea of precision targeting, so he ordered the slaughter of all the infants under two years old in the region.

And this brings me to where I really want to end up. This year we have witnessed asylum seekers in the millions. We have witnessed people on the move, fleeing violence and brutality. It is fitting to recall in this year of the refugee that Jesus also, as a child, was an asylum seeker; toddler Jesus the refugee; God the refugee.

The story of God, the toddler-refugee, is well known in Canada. It will be a story worth telling many times as we make room for the refugees coming this way. And it will be a story worth sharing with refugee families coming here wondering if, in God’s world, there is a place for them.

Have a great Christmas.
Editorial opinions or comments expressed in this online edition of Interrobang newspaper reflect the views of the writer and are not those of the Interrobang or the Fanshawe Student Union. The Interrobang is published weekly by the Fanshawe Student Union at 1001 Fanshawe College Blvd., P.O. Box 7005, London, Ontario, N5Y 5R6 and distributed through the Fanshawe College community. Letters to the editor are welcome. All letters are subject to editing and should be emailed. All letters must be accompanied by contact information. Letters can also be submitted online by clicking here.