Thanksgiving on Thursday—love it. Then Black Friday—what a horrible thought! The way-too-much-to-do usually begins the day after Thanksgiving. Or is the Christmas holiday stressful for only me?

Just making my list of gifts can wear me out, despite the fact one son-in-law never wants anything but a gift certificate. And most years rushing from store to store to purchase these gifts is a misery, with or without gale winds whipping icy snow into my face. And then, of course, those gifts I’ve toted home and hidden eventually have to be found and wrapped.

I wish the sweetness of gift giving didn’t seem like such a chore.

Then most Christmases Tony wants to make a batch of fudge. And, without question, he’ll whip up his extra special version of chocolate chip cookies.  And who has to clean up after him?

Once the kitchen is cleaned, wouldn’t it be nice to sit down and eat one of those cookies while we listen to the Christmas music I finally managed to load into the CD player? But there is no time for relaxation. There is a program, or concert, or party to attend. Grab a cookie, I say to Tony, we can eat it on the way.

But before most of this starts, there is the decorating. Without taking a gifts or aptitude test, I’m sure my gift is reading. If I have another, it might be writing. But, for sure, decorating for holidays isn’t. This involves a good many things, but, of course, the biggest deal is the tree.

The first wave of guilt comes when I think of the way it should be. Shouldn’t getting a tree require putting on layers of clothes, rattling down a dirt road in an old truck, trudging with laughing loved ones through the snow, selecting and sawing down a glorious pine, and dragging it home and placing it in just the perfect spot. At the very least it should involve driving something somewhere and selecting a tree you can smell-one of my sons-in-law insists on it. But Tony and I climb into the attic, find our tree in a storage box, and drop it to the garage floor with a thump. Still, by the time we deck it out with ornaments we love and plug in the twinkling lights, we have to admit it’s rather pretty.

Even though I don’t look forward very much to the whirlwind of decorating,  making of and eating tasty morsels, attending concerts and parties, and making a list and checking it twice, those things, for the organized, energetic, and celebratory, all wonderful aspects of Christmas.

But the Christmas carol we love doesn’t say:
O Come, let us “shop ‘til we drop!“ 
O Come, let us “put on the pounds!“
O Come, let us “run ourselves ragged!“
O Come, let us “pretty this place!“

No, Christians are invited to “come and adore him!“ Of all the things to do at Christmas, this is by far the most important; this is the reason for all the rest. But sometimes everything else crowds out adoration and worship.

That might change if we would pause and reflect on the magnificence of incarnation. I’d like to spend a few weeks doing that on this blog. I hope you’ll join me.