There is nothing quite like watching the joy and anticipation on a child’s face on Christmas morning. The wrapped presents are a fathomless mystery which they cannot wait to rip open and enjoy. During the last three days, my children opened up dozens upon dozens of these presents from our wonderful family. Yet, while these gifts were incredibly thoughtful and birthed in love, I saw my children quickly move from the allure of the mysterious gift to the exhausting deluge of excess and the drive to possess more.

If we live in a culture which idolizes excess, than perhaps Christmas is the crowning holiday for this ideology. The doctrine of exponential growth drives this maddening rush to make the next year bigger, better, and more expensive than the last. It seems to me that this day of celebration does a rather fine job of pulling young minds up to the trough of greed and dissatisfaction with simplicity.

And then there are the constant reminders to “Remember the true meaning of Christmas,” the story of Jesus’ birth. Does this exhortation mean that we should go to worship or read a passage or say a prayer? Rather, at its best, this reminder should drive us to the simplicity and poverty of the subject of this tale, rejecting the marriage of Jesus’ teachings to ultra-capitalism, and showing us that gifts, though great, can be too much.

What do you think?