Celebrating Christ

I have mentioned a bit about scrupulocity being a strict regard to religious morals and beliefs such as in the book The Devil is in the Details. I related to this Jewish girl because as a Mormon I often bring on my own guilt about religious specifics. After I was diagnosed with OCD I began to separate things that actual mean something from things that are just a form of superstition of scrupulocity. But for someone who is religious and has OCD, there is no difference. The anxiety is the same.

A simple one I have been thinking about lately is writing Xmas... Yes, I just deleted and forced myself to retype it! Call me superstitious, but I just feel like it is disrespectful to use an X to write Christmas. I remember as a young child working on a needlepoint that called for this combination of letters and having a total mental block and not being able to continute. I could not force myself to permanately stitch such letters... leaving the Christ our of Christmas? How could I?

A few years ago I started spending time with a new friend. Our boys were the same age and we went to classes together. When Christmas time came around I was suprised to realize that she celebrated Xmas, but not Christmas. What I mean by this is that she loved the holiday, decorated for it, celebrated Santa, etc... but Not Christ. She was athiest. I remember feeling so because for me, there would be no celebration for me without the Christ. For Christmas that year I gave her a small framed photo of the baby Jesus and shared my feelings about why he is so important in my life.

The celebration is about the gift that Christ gave us, the give of the atonement. And without that, there is no way back to our Father in Heaven. The gift is not from Christ, but through him from our Father in Heaven. In my faith we often refer to Jesus as our older brother. Being the oldest in my family I never had an older brother to look out for me. Even better than borrowing an older brother's jacket or tagging along with him for ride in his cool car, we all do have an older brother that gave us so much more.

So, I hear a lot of people talk about putting the Christ back into Christmas. How exactly can we do this?

A few years ago my mother in law told me that her goal for the month of December was to go to the temple. Each week as other seemingly more important things came up, she knew she just had to get this done. It was one small gesture that she felt could be her gift.

The Relief Society sisters in my ward have a tradition of going to the temple together in december and calling it, "A White Christmas." Because the temple is a place where we make covenants with our Heavenly Father, this is a perfect place for us to remember to put the Christ back into Christmas.

Howard W. Hunter said "Let the temple be a symbol of our membership." At Christmas time there are many symbols all around us. And I love this quote because it reminds me to think about my personal covenants, which include following Christ's example of charity and love.

Christmas time is really a gift on it's own... an opportunity for us to serve others. Even in small ways, small acts of kindness put the Christ back into Christmas.

How do you and your family put the Christ back into Christmas?