I had the following conversation with my daughter and her friend yesterday, as the topic of gifts for Christmas came up:
Me: Do you get presents on your birthday?
Daughter and daughter’s friend (DF): Yes.
Me, to DF: “Do you get presents on her birthday?” (while pointing at my daughter). “Or do you get presents on her birthday?”, speaking to my daughter while pointing at her friend.
DF: No, I give her a present on her birthday.
Me: “Do you get presents on Christmas?”
D: “Yes.”
Me: “But whose birthday is Christmas? Is it your birthday?”
D: “No, it’s Jesus’ birthday.”
Me: “So who should really be getting presents on Christmas?”
DF: “Jesus, since it’s His birthday!” then, “But how do we give Him a present?”
Me, paraphasing from Jesus’ words in Matthew 25:40: “Whatever you do for the least of people is doing it for Jesus. So giving to those less fortunate than ourselves is a way of giving a present to Jesus.” I then reminded them that they had just helped serve at the homeless shelter with the church’s youth group a couple days ago.
They were excited to realize they had already given Jesus one birthday present. I suggested, of course, that they see if they can come up with other presents to give Him for His birthday.
I always have a bit of a struggle with Christmas as the owner of a retail store, particularly one that is seasonal by nature of what we sell (outdoor sports tend to favor warmer weather). I detest the commercialization of Christmas, and that in our culture today, Christmas is more about Santa and buying each other presents than celebrating the fact that the Savior of the world was born. I would love to not suggest that people not buy their loved ones a bicycle for Christmas, and instead donate their time and money at the various shelters and food banks, like CCAP, WATTS, the Rescue Mission, etc. The reality, is, though, that Christmas sales enable myself and my staff to have enough income to survive through the slow winter months. So I find myself having to advertise for Christmas in order to make sales to pay the bills. It’s an internal conflict every year.
But, I always try to do something to ease the cognitive dissonance I experience. We participate in good causes, like the recent BikeWalk helmet drive, wherein we provided a discount on helmets bought for the drive (thank you to everyone who purchased a helmet for the drive!). We donated a kid’s bicycle to another charity. But, I am determined to do more. We are going to donate at least 10% of our profits between Black Friday and Christmas to CCAP and/or the other charities listed above to help those less fortunate this winter. So anything Christmas presents you buy from us will help others.
I pray you have a great Christmas, but especially in light of the One’s birthday we celebrate!
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