Top 5 Christmas Movies

I remember going and seeing A Christmas Story in the theater with my grandfather and brother. It was a great movie and it has been rare that Christmas has gone by without me watching it again. But what I remember most about the very first time I saw it was my brother got sick in the car on the way home from my grandfather's house. We were half way home.

I haven't watched any of my favorite Christmas movies yet this year which means that I really need to get on the ball.

So I thought that I would share with you my all-time favorites that I will need to watch before the end of the year.

First is the previously mentioned A Christmas Story. What kid from the 80s doesn't want a Red-Rider BB Gun?

Next is the classic It's a Wonderful Life. When I was young this one would drive me nuts. It was always on. It was on just about every channel at the same time. Why couldn't they just show a cartoon special? But now I love it. Yes it is cheesy but that's the point. I think that it is a great story about not underestimating your importance.

My third favorite is A Charlie Brown Christmas. The movie does a good job of speaking against the commercialism of Christmas. It was written in 1965 and seems even more relevant today. It would be interesting to hear what Charles Schultz would think of all the Christmas creep we see now.

The fourth movie would be How the Grinch Stole Christmas! I do not like the remake, I do not like it, Sam-I-am. Nope. It has to be the old cartoon. It is a plain and simple message. Don't be a Christmas hater.

Finally I will watch Elf. Yes it doesn't have the staying power of the others. I agree that it won't end up being a classic. But it is funny and fun to watch. Besides it is the best thing to watch while eating something from the four main food groups: candy, candy canes, candy corns and syrup.

Christmas music or Holiday music?

Last week I shared thoughts about Christmas and the importance of looking forward all the way to the Resurrection. In that post I also shared how I love Christmas music. I have a lot of Christmas music. My wife has placed a moratorium on any further purchases of Christmas music. I like all kinds of Christmas music spanning from the hard driving rock of the Trans-Siberian Orchestra all the way to the very familiar sounds of A Charlie Brown Christmas.

Jeremy Dowsett, pastor of Blacksoil in Lansing, MI, recently shared some thoughts on Christmas music. He doesn't like the schlocky, nostalgic stuff that has become the regular fodder on mainstream radio. Rather he sees a deep importance to Christmas music:

But there’s a reason that it’s so bad when Christmas music is bad. And that’s because of the sad irony or the inherent discontinuity of art form and object. See Christmas music is about the Incarnation, the fact that God, the Perfectly Beautiful and Glorious One, united himself to the stuff of earth. The Most High and the blood and the mud became one on the first Christmas. And so Christmas is about the elevation of the created realm, the sacralizing of the profane, the taking up of earthly “stuff” into the life of God.

So any human creation attempting to give glory to the God who imbued his Creation with his glory should be…well, glorious, right? Schlocky Christmas music isn’t just bad, it’s untrue–at least if we accept Marshall McLuhan’s famous dictum that the medium is the message.

But when Christmas music is good, it’s soooo good. The lyrics of the classic Christmas hymns and carols are some of the best theologizing and spiritual thinking that the church has to offer. The themes of Jesus’ kingship and his reign over the earth, the response of the whole creation to his Lordship, the kenosis (look it up), the Lukan emphasis on liberation and the defeat of our enemies.

While I do like the nostalgic and schlocky at times, I have to agree. The Christmas music that I keep coming back to is the stuff that is both musically beautiful as well as theologically deep. Christmas is the one of the few times of year that Christ is interjected seamlessly into our culture. We as Christians should be unapologetically Christian at this time of the year. Our choice of music can either be glorifying of Christmas and all of its true meaning or it can be glorifying of all that the world has turned the holiday season into.

Some of my favorite Christmas music:

Bebo Norman's Christmas...From The Realms of Glory

Casting Crowns' Peace On Earth

Todd Agnew's Do You See What I See?

Christmas, the Cross and the Empty Tomb

I am a Christmas nut. I absolutely love Christmas time. I love the lights, the sounds and the bustle. I actually enjoy going to the mall and just walking around. One of my most favorite things is the music. Right now my iPod contains 691 Christmas songs. I have: 

• 12 versions of God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen or God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen or God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen (It seems to me that the comma placement can drastically change the meaning of the song.) 
  
• 13 versions of What Child is This?
  
• 16 versions of Joy To The World
  
• 1 version of Dominic The Italian Christmas Donkey (I mean really; anything more than that is just superfluous.)
  

But the song that takes the cake is the whopping 23 versions of Silent Night. Which may be arguably the classic Christmas song. Interestingly it was originally written to be played on a guitar in 6/8 time which is a more upbeat time. It is a swing or dance pattern that is used in popular music (think Shout To The North by Delirious or House Of The Rising Sun by The Animals). So Silent Night might be the true precursor to modern guitar rock. But I digress.

The reason that I love Christmas is that it is when God came down to earth. It is what we call the Incarnation; God took the form of humanity. There has been much debate over the years as to the details of what all the Incarnation entails. But the most important thing to know about the Incarnation is that it means that God cares intimately about us as human beings. He wants to draw close to us and not to merely sit on high. 

We are all separated from God by all of the things that we do wrong. We all commit sin. We all do things that are morally wrong. And there is nothing that we can do to make up for those wrongs. We can never achieve perfection again. I have shared the illustration of the poison in the water glass before:

I find it helpful to imagine a glass of water and a vial of extremely strong poison. The poison is so powerful that a single drop in the water is enough to cause death. The water is considered corrupt as soon as that drop is added. Now that glass of water misses the bulls-eye of being pure water. In the same way, as soon as we commit a single sin we are no longer considered pure.

The only way for that water to be pure again is to go through a purifying process. That is where Jesus comes in. Jesus coming to earth in the form of a human being was just the first step in providing the perfect purifying process. What is important for a Christmas nut like me to remember is that the Incarnation does not mean anything by itself. Jesus' death on the cross was also necessary. Paul is quite clear in Romans 6:23 that our sinfulness bring death. Fortunately for us Jesus stepped in and paid that penalty for us. That is what he accomplished on the cross.

But there is more.

Jesus coming to earth in the form of a human and dying on the cross for our sins are incomplete without his resurrection as well. Jesus not only paid the penalty for our sin but he also provides life for us as well. Paul ends Romans 6:23 by saying that we are given eternal life through our faith in Jesus Christ.

Christmas may called the most wonderful time of the year. But as Christians we cannot separate Christmas from Good Friday and Easter. It is incomplete without them. So take the time to enjoy all of the wonders of Christmas but remember that the ultimate gift came in full on Easter morning.