What Christmas Means to Me

My earliest memories of December are filled with joy and anticipation. As a child, Christmas meant new clothes, matching African print ashobi, Jollof rice and pot roast, carols and the thrill of crackers, bangers, sparklers, and joy.

As an adult, my Christmas memories have changed, but light has always remained, lighting our homes, the act of giving, bringing joy, and celebrating together. After eleven months of the year, the twelfth month comes along, and there is this turning on of a light switch that escorts us out of the year and into a new one. Christian singer Toby Mac captures it well in his song Christmas This Year: “And everywhere I go I can feel it. Some say it moves like a spirit. It falls on us once a year.”

Yet, with all the lightheartedness, celebration, gifting, food, and family, I am reminded that it has always been Jesus. People debate whether Jesus was really born in December, or why we celebrate Christmas with a tree or claim Christmas is a pagan holiday. These debates go on, but for me, Christmas is all about Jesus.

To explain further, I must go all the way back to the beginning, to God’s original intent and plan for man and woman in the garden of Eden. Scripture says after He created them, He told them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it.” (Genesis 1:28 ESV), and in the cool of the day, they communed with Him (Genesis 3:8).