What does Christmas mean to you?

Holy Cross junior high language arts teacher, Mr. Fournier, assigned his newspaper students a contest to write about the meaning of Christmas. The following is the winning article, by 8th grader Devin Palmer…

Candy Canes, Baby Jesus and… Christmas Sweaters?

What does Christmas mean to you?

Ask a child and get an hour long description of their favorite hot cocoa recipe, all the presents they absolutely need for Christmas and their record for most candy canes eaten in ten minutes.

Ask an adult and they’ll give a list of all their favorite family traditions, how stressed they are about having the whole family over and how their children can eat more than 26 candy canes in under ten minutes.

Shouldn’t Christmas mean a little bit more than that? Christmas is not solely about who can down the most eggnog or fit the most fruitcake in her mouth, it has a little bit more to do with that whole giving/receiving stuff.

Think about it, Christmas could just as easily be called Jesus Day. God was born on Christmas before it was Christmas. There were no candy canes, Santa hadn’t even been born yet. It was just a very pregnant Mary, a very nervous father-to-be and a lot of animals, who are all very grateful that they are about to receive a beautiful son, who –oh by the way- will bring eternal peace and joy to the whole world.

We need to be grateful for that, too.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m totally thankful for candy canes and Christmas cookies (seriously thankful), but that same baby from that stable more than 2000 years ago is the reason we’re here. So this holiday let’s be a little more “Wow, Great-Aunt Marge, thanks for spending your time to make me a gift!” instead of your usual sarcasm: “Gee, Great-Aunt Marge, another hand-knitted sweater?”

Now go crank up your favorite Christmas jam, eat some fruitcake and have a happy Christmas Jesus Day.