Danielle Pelkey: What is your reason for the holiday season?

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December 14, 2012

Danielle Pelkey: What is your reason for the holiday season?

By Danielle Pelkey North Jefferson News The North Jefferson News Fri Dec 14, 2012, 02:09 PM CST

COMMENTARY — What is this Christmas season really all about? Doesn’t it make you stop and think about your motives when someone asks a question like that?

For some people, Christmas is all about the Benjamins. They think that everything in the month of December revolves around the almighty dollar. Their gift-giving and receiving is absurd. The most important thing to these type of people is whatever is under the wrapping paper and bows. These are the ones who are repeatedly disappointed by their Christmas holidays. When the last gift is opened and the smoke has cleared, they are usually sitting in a living room staring at their newfound electronics and wondering if this is really worth all of the fuss.

Then there are the folks who couldn’t care less about anything other than being surrounded by family and friends. These are the social butterflies, or homebodies, who long to strengthen relationships and see people develop closer ties that bind. I find myself quite close to this way of thinking. When the first whispers of Christmas are heard through the weeks in October, in my mind I am already sitting around the tree with my entire family on Christmas Eve. I long to be with my family and absolutely love to have any excuse to sit around and talk with them about new times and relive old memories with them.

It’s not just the family gatherings that get good around this time of year, there are parties with friends; and even work parties can be fun at Christmas time. It seems like the world is wearing a smile during this month, and we all get to stare at it in amazement.

Along the same lines of the family-loving people, there are people who can find everything they love about Christmas right smack dab in the middle of any nativity scene they come across. The reason for their season is the Son of Mary who sleeps in the manger of all ceramic nativity scenes. His birth is what made the angels sing, made the star shine, made the wise men wonder and made the shepherds quake. His birth is what brought freedom for the whole world. And through the birth of that chosen one, there was a way of salvation made for all mankind. For these folks, the hope of their entire existence rests in the smiling newborn lying in the straw in Bethlehem.

Yes, the presents are great. We all love to get them. And yes, family and friends are so very important during this special season of coming together for a common cause. But the real reason for Christmas and the whole basis of our holy holiday is the birth of Jesus Christ some 2000 years ago in a stable in the city of David.

When your child is ripping open his or her Xbox 360 or Easy Bake Oven, be sure that they know the real purpose for this holiday and the purpose of the gift giving as done by the wise men. Don’t let this be a purposeless season. Keep the main thing the main thing, and thank God for sending His only begotten son for you.

Merry Christmas to you and your family.

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Danielle Pelkey: What is your reason for the holiday season?

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