Whose Birthday is it anyway?

Yes, it's that time of year again...time to get inundated with messages of "if you love them you'll buy this" and annoying gimmicky songs. Now before you go and call me a Christmas scrooge, let me defend myself...actually, no, you're right, I am a scrooge.

As I've become more aware of the evils of consumerism, I've become more uncomfortable with the Christmas season. It's been difficult for me to get excited about a holiday that has become near synonymous with consumerism. Add in all the extra stress of dinners and "getting the most out of the holidays" and I've pretty much viewed Christmas as a time of year to grin and bare, rather than a time to celebrate.

This needs to change. I'm working on it. I've had some help from Alternatives for Simple Living (www.simpleliving.org). They've produced a helpful resource called Whose Birthday is it Anyway, that helps to make our celebrations reflective of the Christ-child we are celebrating. Throughout Advent (which starts this Sunday) there are reflections on the meaning of Christmas and how we can orient our lives around that story (rather than fit the story into our lives). Hopefully I can reconstruct a joyful Christmas before I find myself a scrooge and a loner on Christmas!

What do you do to counter the consumer pull of the holidays?