Article December 19, 1988 Issue

The gift of Christmas

It is ours to appreciate and to grow with every moment of every day of the year.

Clifford Kapps Eriksen

"Keep Christ in Christmas!" reads a popular holiday slogan. Although such slogans may sound rather trite, their sentiments express in simple terms the heartfelt concern of many sincere Christians.

No sooner is the last Halloween pumpkin out of sight, it seems, than we're saturated with preparations for Yuletide revelry. Colorful newspaper advertisements hawk spectacular sales, an unending stream of holiday music pours through the radio, nightly television boasts "Christmas specials" starring a host of familiar personalities or cartoon characters—often sending the message that Christmas is a time for rampant materialism. But what is the deep, spiritual understanding of Christmas?

The Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, wrote, "Christmas to me is the reminder of God's great gift,—His spiritual idea, man and the universe,—a gift which so transcends mortal, material, sensual giving that the merriment, mad ambition, rivalry, and ritual of our common Christmas seem a human mockery in mimicry of the real worship in commemoration of Christ's coming." The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 262 .

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