Resist the call to excess

Rabbi Manes Kogan, spiritual leader at Beth Israel Synagogue in Roanoke, was decrying the increasing commercialization of Hanukkah when we talked recently for a story about that Jewish holiday.

The observance is considered a relatively minor one in Judaism, but in America its importance has swollen, Kogan believes, as it has fallen prey to the same commercialism that has hijacked Christmas.

Because Hanukkah falls near the Christian holiday each year, some families feel the need to make it particularly lavish, especially in the gift-giving department, so children won't feel "left out" of the holiday season.

As a Christian, I can relate to Kogan's dismay at the trend.

Christmas has become so secularized, so fiercely rooted in the idea of sales, that it hardly feels like a "holy day," any more. When we talk about its importance, we're more likely to be discussing its impact on the national economy than on our spirits.

I know every old fogey has been decrying the trend for half a century at least. But I fear the problem is getting worse, not better, with time.

Acknowledging Jesus

I'm a sucker for Christmas movies, and one of my favorites is 1947's "The Bishop's Wife." Cary Grant plays an angel who helps David Niven, a Protestant bishop, get his priorities straight.

Watching it recently, I was struck by a few scenes in which New York City department store windows were on display.

Prominent among them were representations of the Nativity. The stores weren't trying to sell a particular product in them - no Red Ryder BB gun beside the manger. They merely were designed to lure shoppers with a beautiful religious display that paid homage to the reason for the season.

Sure, that can be seen as calculated, craven commercialism, too. But at least it involved some acknowledgement of the religious nature of the holiday.

Of course, there are practically no department store window displays any more. Not like there were 50 years ago, anyway. But the fact that virtually all displays now revolve around Santa, snow, reindeer and elves says something about what we've let Christmas become.

I don't blame merchants for that. We consumers have driven the baby Jesus out of the manger and into a leather-lined luxury sedan.

When to stop

Because this is my first Christmas as a grandparent, it has a special character for me. I always loved my own children's delight in the holiday, and I hope to see the same in my grandson - although he certainly won't demonstrate that for another year or two at the earliest.

But I also hope that his parents, and his grandparents, will be able to resist the temptation to go overboard on the gift front. That's easy enough in a child's first couple of years - when he or she would rather play with the gift wrap and boxes than what's inside them anyway.

It gets harder as the years go by and the urge to do more and more grows. As we have to face down more commercials asserting that it's OK to give the Mercedes and simply acknowledge that it was "too much."

I pray I'll be strong enough to resist the temptation to want to give in excess. To keep the presents simple and appropriate. To always remind little Christopher - and the grandchildren to come - that the holiday has a significance beyond the gifts and glitter.