Introduction

This booklet is for people who know something is wrong with the way Christmas is celebrated in North America. It is for people who want to experience joy and goodness that comes not from expensive gifts and consumer products, but from the Prince of Peace.

Almost two thousand years ago in the little town of Bethlehem, Jesus was born. This is why we celebrate Christmas. Yet through the years Christmas has slid into the marketplace. Our religious symbols and traditions have become advertising vehicles for businesses hungry to lure eager customers. In the end, our Holy Festival has, in the words of T.S. Eliot, become "displeasing to God and disrespectful to children." It has, more often than not, become a celebration of ourselves and our prosperity.

Saint Clement once told new Christians to become "a partner of Christ who makes the divine ray shine from heaven." Because our society has so commercialized Christmas, many people feel Madison Avenue and Wall Street are pressuring them into a different partnership - one with the gods of greed and consumption.

Whose Birthday Is It, Anyway? is designed to help you and those in your household resist these pressures by offering alternatives to the consumer Christmas. It is designed to help you become a partner with the Prince of Peace and discover the joy and goodness Christ brings. In short, this booklet has been created to help you celebrate the coming of the One whose birthday it really is.

How You Can Use This Resource

• Make a commitment to resist the consumer Christmas celebration - see below (or create your own using this as a model). Include each person of your household in this exercise. Review the commitment throughout the weeks of Advent.
• Use the Guidelines for Alternative Giving to consider appropriate ways to share your time, talents and money with loved ones and those who are needy.
• Plan to spend some time each week during Advent and Christmastime with "O Come, O Come Emmanuel." These household reflections, services and activities were created to help you and those in your home journey into the heart of our festival of the birth of Jesus.
• "Manger Scenes and Mistletoe: What Makes a Tradition?" will help you examine Christmas celebrations in your home. Use this guide to refine existing or create new household traditions that are both intentional and meaningful.

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