No, Christmas Is Not ‘What You Make It’

For several years now, Hobby Lobby’s Christmas marketing campaign has used the theme: “Christmas is what you make it.” Commercials depict warm and heart-tugging vignettes of individuals, in one way or another, sharing some Christmas joy with someone else: 

I must admit, the commercial above brought a lump to my throat: An older, happily married couple observes two young, lonely singles that need a little push to get to know each other. The older couple takes steps to make it happen. The young couple meets and decorates a tree together (with Hobby Lobby decorations, of course!). What’s not to love?

The problem is that the overarching message is all wrong. Coming from a company known for its Christian ownership, its abundance of Christian merchandise, and its practice of not being open on Sunday, this is surprising. The truth is that Christmas is not what you make it. It has nothing to do with any action on your part. Thank God.

Christmas Comes

While it looks to be a misconception that the suicide rate goes up during the holidays, it is not a misconception that the holidays can cause stress. Some of that stress might be due to the demands of the season itself: There is shopping to do, gifts to wrap, parties and events to attend, cleaning, cooking, and pressure to have a picture-perfect Hallmark-worthy celebration. Other stress might arise from a heightened sense of loneliness for people who don’t have someone with whom to share “the most wonderful time of the year.” Yet another source of stress is the literal darkness of the season, causing some people to experience seasonal affective disorder.

So to add, on top of an already demanding time, the pressure to “make” Christmas into anything at all, as if Christmas needs you in order to happen, misses the whole point. It’s the same lesson Dr. Seuss and Charles Schulz both tried to teach us.

Christ Came

Many Christians, during the month of December, seek not to let Christmas, particularly all its secular trappings, crowd out the liturgical season that comes right before it: Advent. The season of Advent is a time of preparation and repentance, of waiting and looking with anticipation toward the arrival of the newborn King, the One sent to save the world from its sins.

That tiny baby, Jesus Christ, would grow up to die on a cross and rise on the third day to proclaim victory over sin, death, and the devil. All who are in Him share, by grace, in that same victory. One day He will return to claim His own. Advent, at the same time that it recalls Christ’s first coming in the flesh, also looks forward to His final coming, when the things we now see only dimly, as in a mirror, will become radiantly clear as we see our Lord face to face. 

What the Grinch learns after realizing he can’t stop Christmas, and what Charlie Brown learns as he seeks to understand the true meaning of Christmas, is the same lesson we need to learn: It’s not up to us. We can’t make Christmas happen. We can’t make it better. To think that, by our feeble efforts, we can make it more meaningful is the height of arrogance, not to mention a prescription for deep disappointment. The meaning of Christmas is not in us or anything we do. It is only in Christ and what He did.

Be at Peace

I am not trying to hate on a sweet commercial. The message of looking beyond ourselves to care for others — a message we hear in abundance this time of year — is a worthy one. We should listen and try to carry it through December, into the new year, and beyond.

But if you are struggling right now — with rejection, loneliness, or illness; with fears about the future or dreams unrealized; with the effects of natural disasters or the pain of losing a loved one; with unemployment, financial pressures, addiction, or something else — you don’t have to do anything to make Christmas happen. Christmas does not depend on you. Christmas happened, and happens again in our yearly observance, only because of a gracious God who had a plan, from the beginning of time, to save the creation He loves.

“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). 

Merry Christmas!

Cheryl Magness is managing editor of Reporter, the official web magazine of The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. She writes regularly on issues of faith, family and culture. The opinions expressed here are her own.