Christmas is not just about Jesus -- but maybe it is.

I know that we all, as good Christians -- if that's what we are -- grew up thinking that Christmas celebrated the birth of Jesus Christ. It's the foundation of the Christian religion. But you and I know that it's gone way beyond that. Christmas has become sort of a national holiday -- a whole season -- of giving and receiving. It's grown beyond its religious beginnings to mean something more to the greater society, and, in the meantime, it's become more secular, meaning that Christmas, to most of us, means the buying and giving of presents. But I think the Jesus story is still in there somewhere.

We all have mixed emotions about the commercial direction Christmas has taken, but I don't think we should be so conflicted. Doesn't the original idea of Christmas involve the giving of gifts? The Wise Men bringing gifts to the baby Jesus?

So why shouldn't we all feel free to expand on that idea to include giving gifts to each other?

And isn't it convenient -- not just for us but for Best Buy and Walmart and Target and Circuit City, etc. -- that we have agreed to give our gifts at this particular time? We all value those who have given to us in so many ways, throughout out lives, so isn't it convenient that we're given this one day to thank them all? Shouldn't we be thankful that we can reward and recognize all those important people in our lives on this one chosen day? Christmas. The day we thank those who are important to us and accept gifts from those who consider us important. In a very real way, it's a special day. And very secular: like a big birthday for all of us at once.

But I don't think this has to leave Jesus out of the equation. "Do unto those as you would have them do unto you," he said. So what does that mean at this time of year? That we should give not just to each other but also to our favorite charity, whether it's our local homeless shelter or battered women's home or food bank or the place they keep all those animals that are about to be euthanized. There is much giving that can be done at this time of year, to each other and to causes we support, and I think Jesus would have approved of it all.

And maybe, while we're thinking about it, we should consider not rewarding ourselves and our loved ones quite so extravagantly. I gew up in a family that didn't have much, where I got one present on Christmas morning. But if it was the right present -- the one I'd asked for -- I was thankful and happy! (One year it was a football, and I played with it all day long -- Joe Montana threw me passes I threw to myself all day long!) My own kids get more presents every year than they can use or appreciate in a lifetime. Shameful, and I blame myself.

Still, I think we can balance the secularization of Christmas with the religion of Christmas, if we just realize that we've all adopted it as a special day of our own, for our own purposes. It is the
day of giving -- us to each other, and Jesus as our gift from God, to redeem of us our sins (or so we hope!). I don't see those as mutually exclusive concepts.

That means we can put up a nativity scene and a Christmas tree and sing songs about both.

And doesn't Christmas have all the best songs? Can you think of another holdiday with even a fraction of the great songs of Christmas? No way. And they are equally divided between the wonderfully religious -- "O Little Town" and "We Three Kings" and "Hark the Herald Angels Sing", etc. -- and the purely secular -- "Jingle Bells" and "We Wish You a Merry Chistmas" and all those songs about Santa Claus.

I think Christmas is all about giving thanks for our shared humanity and for the Great Whoever that made it possible. I celebrate the mystery and love the idea that a God I know is probably not the God who is. Come on, now: who would want to worship a God he/she really understood?

Love the season for what it is: a celebration of the mystery that is you and me and us and for our amazing need to give to each other, if just once a year.

And as Tiny Tim said in Charles Dickens' famous Christmas story, "God bless us one and all." Amen.