Cathy and I love to decorate for Christmas.  There are many reasons for this, but the primary one is to celebrate the birthday of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  

A Christmas Enthusiast Prayer
 As I untangle strings of Christmas lights, Lord help me to remember that I do this first to honor You.  Never let me get so prideful of my display that I fail to see the wonders in the eyes of a child or the joy on the faces of those who are still children at heart.   Never let me forget that my total effort is to make Christmas memories, bring cheer and to slow down the pace of a hectic season if only for a moment.  And Lord, someday when I meet you face to face, may I hear you say:

“When you made My people smile, you made Me smile.”

Obviously, the reason Christmas exists in the first place is to celebrate the birth of Jesus.  However, for many, this fact is either forgotten, or maybe not even known.  (If you'd like to know more about the true meaning of Christmas, see this page).  Between the shopping and gift-giving frenzy, Santa Claus, the Grinch, and all the other traditions of Christmas, sometimes the message of Jesus gets lost in the holiday that's supposed to celebrate His birth.

It may have been my Dad who inspired me to use Christmas lights as a Christian witness.  Growing up, we lived across the street from our church, which had an outdoor nativity scene.  In decorating the house, his philosophy was "no Santa Claus".  The reason was that he didn't want the Christian nativity scene on one side of the street, and the "secular scene" on the other side, taking away from the Nativity..  I've adopted the philosophy of keeping the true meaning of Christmas in our displays ever since.  You'll never see any generic "Season's Greetings" or "Happy Holidays" signs at our house, although you'll find a large "Merry Christmas".  You'll find the traditional candy canes, wreaths, colored lights, trees, stars, and snowflakes, but you'll also find our Peanuts Nativity Pageant, where Linus reads from the gospel of Luke, as he does in the much-loved Charlie Brown Christmas TV special.

Now don't get me wrong, we don't have anything against Santa Claus, nor do we have anything against people who decorate with a Santa theme or whatever else.  We just simply feel that we can use our display to help others remember Jesus during the Christmas season.  We're not the type to preach at you when you don't want to hear, although we're certainly willing to talk about our faith.  And I don't expect anyone will become a Christian through the simple fact that they looked at our display.  But if we can help at least one person to think about Jesus and the meaning of Christmas this season who otherwise wouldn't have, then the display was well worth the effort.  As a nice side benefit, it's pretty to look at, too!  

As a matter of  fact, we do have a couple Santa Claus figures in our display, but one of ours just happens to be kneeling down by the manger of Baby Jesus!

If you're reading this and have any questions about your Salvation or what it means to be a Christian, please know that God loves you,  and wants a personal relationship with you. 

There are many resources available to you to get your questions answered:

May God bless you this Christmas season and throughout the year!
-Tim & Cathy Fischer

This page was last updated on Saturday, November 03, 2007

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