How was your Christmas?

"Are you ready for Christmas? How was your Christmas preparation going? You must be busy preparing for Christmas. " These are some of the questions/statements I heard over the week leading up to Christmas. Why do you need to get ready at all? Isn't Jesus in our hearts at all times? What does it mean: to be ready for Christmas? Here are according to my imagination.

1. To the Tai-Tais in my church back home, it means that you have bought a new dress for each Christmas event in the church that you are attending: the Christmas Eve service, the Christmas Day service, the Christmas celebration of each division (there is women ministry Christmas, Sunday school Christmas, church activist Christmas, and many more). And you have made your appointment with your hairdresser secured for that special occasion.
   
2. To the church activist, to be ready for Christmas means that your troupe (dance, choir, nativity pageant, skit) are ready for the big Christmas show (I'm not sure if they still do that, having children perform a dance number on Christmas Day), that the church is decorated, and that the souvenier calendars are printed, and many more.
   
3. In the US, it means to have all the Christmas presents for friends and relatives bought, wrapped and delivered to the recipients. It also means to have your refrigerator is filled up with the food you are going to serve for Christmas dinner. It is essential to prepare to the minutest detail because on Christmas Eve, at 5:00 0'clock pm, everything closes down. The only place still open is the fire station, the police station, and the hospitals. If you are out of salt, that's it.
   
4. In Singapore, it means that you have bought presents for all your colleague and your significant other, and made reservation at the restaurant for that decadent Christmas Eve dinner or Christmas morning brunch in a chic restaurant, preferably in a place sky high, with your current significant other. Or if you are celebrating at home, the turkey, ham and leg of lamb are ordered.

For some people, it can be burdensome. Others are plagued with guilt when they don't deliver "Christmas." How did Christmas become so burdensome? Why things has to be just so, or otherwise its not Christmas? Don't get me wrong. There is nothing wrong with making an effort to plan a memorable Christmas for your friends and family. But I dare you all to do something dramatically un-Christmas next year while still keep the spirit of Christmas, which is Jesus himself, alive in our hearts. May be have an up-side-down tree? Stuffing-out turkey?