What's happened to Christmas?

Once again it’s Christmas Eve and I sit by myself in deep thought,
A season, so true, has become much ado, not of Jesus, but of the presents to be bought.
There are stockings to be filled up with candy and under the tree will be toys, 
And we’ll revive a miracle, not of Jesus, but of Santa, who brings joy to all good girls and boys.

Last minute shoppers out searching for deals will spend hours and hours at the mall,
To be the first one to get all the best and the latest, and they will spare no expense at all.
They pull and they push and they make a mad rush when the doors to the stores are unlocked,
It’s a scene of sheer chaos and of greed, even blasphemous, these crazy ideas we concoct.

The houses are lit up all down the streets with incredible shows of bright light,
And though, even then, at the most, one of ten has a manger scene even in sight.
And how many among us will actually pause for moment before dinner is served, 
To say Grace to our Lord for giving us more than any of us ever deserved.

So many will think that my thoughts will confirm me a Grinch of the most miserable kind,
But in my mind it’s clear, that the thoughts that I fear are the falsehoods of Christmas I find.             
Though the sights and the sounds of the holiday season promise seemingly endless delights,
It’s the spell of the indulgence that compels us to see our real gifts not as gifts but as rights.

Somehow we manage to pass it all off as a wonderful time of the year,
But we have not much to say about Jesus’ day, at least not of what I can hear,
I wish someone would tell me with some sort of certainty how Christmas became just a word,
And how it became nothing less than insane, something totally and utterly absurd.

I hope and I pray that we all will, one day, see Christmas for what it is really worth,
That the reason we even have Christmas at all is to celebrate Jesus’ birth.
And that peace that we feel when we give Christmas morning is the true gift he’s given us all,
It’s a spirit of love that goes far and above any gift you can get from the mall.

Happy Birthday Jesus!