Whose birthday is it, anyway?

This poster comes from the Buy Nothing Christmas people (see link on sidebar). The first time I saw it, I chuckled. They certainly picked a serious Jesus icon to get their message across. But they've got a point. Imagine the impoverished Galilean's reaction to West Edmonton Mall! Would he try to throw the money changers out of that temple of opulence?

The title of this moodling is borrowed from a publication that I've picked up for the past few years from http://www.simpleliving.org/.  When I received my first copy, it made me want to do something more than just read it, so I called up an Anglican pastor friend and asked if he would consider hosting an ecumenical "Rethinking Christmas" workshop. Helping people to simplify the most commercialized season of the year holds a lot of appeal, especially when a lot of the talk around Christmas these days is about "surviving." What about enjoying?

Too many North Americans try to pack too much into the month of December, and we end up as stressed out as our credit cards are maxed out. Whose Birthday is it, Anyway? offers a lot of helpful antidotes to the consumer craziness that threatens to engulf us starting at the end of October (or earlier -- some stores had their Christmas ornaments out with back to school stuff this year!)

Over the next few days, I hope to share a few simple Christmas ideas that have worked well at our house. Yesterday's moodling about http://www.kiva.org/ is just one example -- there are so many more. And if you have ideas that you want to share, please leave a comment. There's so much we can learn from each other.