The Real Meaning of Christmas

So this is Christmas, and what have you done?

No really, that's not a rhetorical question.  What has your Christmas season looked like so far?

If you are like most people, you've spent the last few weeks shopping, wrapping presents, attending obligatory holiday functions, and with any remaining time, finishing up your shopping. Maybe you've heard a Christmas carol or two along the way, but for most people, the obligations of the Christmas season have very little to do with the reason we celebrate Christmas in the first place.

It's no wonder that Linus had to spend the climax of "Charlie Brown's Christmas" to remind us what Christmas is about.

Of course, Christmas gets celebrated on a larger scale than Easter because it has meaning to people beyond it religious importance. It's a day that exists to celebrate Jesus's birth, but it's a day that means something different to everyone.  Like a good U2 song, it can be appreciated equally at the surface level, or for its spiritual message.

To some people, it's just a day about presents, to others it's about family, and to retail stores, it's a day of salvation from an otherwise oppressive economy.  To the couch potato, it's a season of plentiful food and college bowl games.To an overworked attorney/blogger (who sometimes doubles as the couch potato), the Christmas season increasingly represents a rare break from the crushing obligations of work in the professional world.
 
To Christians, the celebration of Jesus' birth represents proof that there's a Creator of the Universe who cared enough about the creation to become actively involved in it, and whose coming freed humanity from its own failures and limitations. 
 
Who is right?

I used to be one of those "Christmas Warriors" who resented any effort, by anyone, to make Christmas mean anything other than the sentiment two paragraphs above. 
 
I'm not one of those people anymore.  It's not because I'm less religious.  It's because of something Jesus said.  After all, who knows more about Christmas than him?  
 
When he was here, Jesus said that he came not only to provide a path for eternal peace with God in the afterlife, but also to make our lives better, more abundant, while we are here.  A recipe for that abundant life is to enjoy the pleasures--family, relaxation, togetherness--that this life has to offer.  Christmas is one of the few times in life that we stop to celebrate the things that make life good.  Even if that is all that Christmas means to someone, they are still getting its greater point at some level.   
 
Viewed in that light, even the "secular" side of Christmas has a deeper meaning.  
 
I don't have all the answers in life, but I do know this: God doesn't want our lives to be easy, but God wants us to be happy while we're here.  If Christmas is a means to that end, then I'm not going to get in the way of that by telling anyone they should celebrate it differently.  
 
Don't get me wrong.  It still drives me crazy that the commercialism and endless obligations of Christmas sometimes overshadow everything else.  Most everyone agrees that isn't supposed to be the point of Christmas, even if it sometimes slides down that slippery slope. 
 
Everyone knows Christmas is something deeper than that, even if few want to define it, for fear of not being sufficiently inclusive. 
 
So what is the real meaning of Christmas?
 
The meaning of Christmas isn't just that Christmas has meaning.  It's deeper than that.  The meaning of Christmas is that Christmas is meaningful.  So meaningful that it can still be appreciated, even for those who only appreciate a fraction of its intended message.  
 
Not many people know "Where the Streets Have No Name" is a song about Heaven, but almost everyone turns up the volume when it comes on the radio. 

Christmas is the same way. 

It's a day worth celebrating whether you understand the spiritual message of "Hark the Herald Angels Sing," or whether you just hum along because the tune is irresitible.