Mainlining the Meaning of Christmas

This your Christmas card from me. It's okay to watch Hallmark movies, but also we need to talk about some Jesus facts. Merry Christmas!

Apologies for the long silence, things have not let up. We’ll do a Christmas-letter edition.

Me: Hanging in there, not the worst but not improving. I’ll get a string of normal-type days (or force them to happen), be convinced the corner has turned, and then it’s over, never mind. As some of you can attest, I am not succeeding at holding regular life together very much at all. Almost wrote, or partially-wrote, once or twice, but couldn’t pull off the full work of composing, editing, finding the photo, all that. So we’ll keep this one simple.

Around me: Death! Young friend of the family lost his childhood best friend (unknown to us) to suicide, and has had a pile-on of other difficulties alongside - big prayer request there. Beloved elder recently diagnosed with a quick-acting terminal cancer, and another one who was given a few weeks to live five years ago is likely running out of second chances. Scheduled for the 26th - burial at the local National Cemetery, finally, for our relative who committed suicide during wedding week.

Immediate family: Doing great. All the children are above average, just how we like it.

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The Real Meaning of Christmas

Sometime in early November I started watching Christmas movies. We can reliably assess my mental status using the Netflix Scale:

5. Normal, healthy: What? Who even has time for TV? There is so much to do.

4. Mildly under the weather: I think I will watch this challenging art house cinema or foreign film.

3. Something’s wrong: Slurping up shows the kids recommended, and/or taking in a whole game on ESPN+.

2. No, really, something is very wrong: Few minutes of a game, but mostly Hallmark-genre.

1. Brain offline, bottom of chart (we’ve been staying out of this one, thank goodness): I will lay here in silence and sometimes think about how nice it would be to have enough energy to watch a movie.

I can happily report, though, that I got no lower than a high 2, where we are periodically pausing the Hallmark-esque movie not because we needed a break from all mental stimulation, but because we could only endure the low-conflict, Plot Lite for short spurts before the over-sweetness triggered fantasies about maybe couldn’t they add in a murder or something to spice it up?

Actually Sweet, Pleasant Movies are Good!

Aside: Some of you totally love Hallmark Channel product all the time. In my experience this happens when people have accumulated more than enough darkness in real life and have no use for seeking out extra evil to live through vicariously.

Also, if you just want something relaxing you can play in front of the grandkids, but which is an adult plot concept, there you go.

I am genuinely grateful for the existence of pleasant, wholesome content. The world needs more of it, not less, even if it’s not my personal go-to viewing at all times.

But what is Christmas actually about?

So here’s the thing about Christmas movies, regardless of how sweet or dark they get: They are usually produced for a pluralistic, secular audience.

I’ve seen many, many Christmas films that center on faith in Santa Claus. I have seen very few that address faith in Jesus Christ.

The most Christian-themed of the general-audience, Hallmark-style Christmas romances will include words like “blessing” “thankful” “grace” “answer to prayer” and so forth. There will be a scene that takes place in front of an image of the Nativity, perhaps while the lead couple is out on a walk amidst the romantic set location, sharing tales of past pain or fond memories of a lost time. Actual-Christmas is referenced, and that’s good!

And yet: When it comes down to the heartwarming climax, the “Real Meaning of Christmas” is directly or indirectly declared to be:

• Time spent with friends and family;

• Generosity and/or caring for others;

• Making warm holiday memories centered on the simple pleasures of home and community life.

These are all good things, and these are things that we Christians value in part because we are Christian, but they are most emphatically not the “real meaning of Christmas.”

Why does it matter?

I’m not here to be a pedantic stick-in-the-mud, as much as that tendency comes naturally to me. I still have a long list of extraordinarily shallow Christmas-ish movies on my Netflix watch list. (Anything with a prince or a Scottish castle in the title? Please. Leave your intellectual vanity at the door, these are not deep waters.)

But here is the rub: These pseudo-meanings — happiness, friendship, family, generosity, community, tradition — will eventually leave you empty.

Sooner or later, these things fail. The one you love, or want to, isn’t there. The tradition you cherish, or wish you had to cherish, doesn’t happen. You have no means to give, or you find yourself in need and have no one to remember you.

Does this sound too art house and not enough Hallmark?

Yes. It is. Because the real meaning of Christmas is that our world is dark and broken and lonely and horrible — even though it is also good and beautiful! — and Jesus entered into our human suffering and created the hope of a future of eternal happiness, not through making everything sweet and nice here on earth (though He did what He miracles could here and there), but by suffering brutal injustice and torment, and then overcoming that with supernatural, divine power that no amount of human effort at Christmas cheer could ever produce.

The eternal reward for those who have faith comes after death, not before.

Be Joyful, Things are Terrible!

I think you should absolutely treasure every shred of beauty and kindness that you can find in your life. As Christians, we model our lives after the Savior and try to relieve suffering and bring light and goodness everywhere we can. It is fine and good and right to have a pleasant Christmas celebration full of lovely things and delicious food and the camaraderie of friends and family and community.

But the real meaning of Christmas is there waiting for us even when all the nice things are not.

Birth of the Savior Icon, circa 1232, via Wikimedia, public domain