The Christmas season is supposed to be a time of joyous celebration and time spent with dear family and friends.  We say “supposed to” because it seems that Christmas has become so expensive, so commercialized that people dread “the most wonderful time of the year.”

Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years have all been rolled into one mega-holiday that features stressful highlights such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday.  Running even the most basic of errands in December means sitting in traffic or waiting in line.  To top it off, we all spend way too much money during this time of the year.

What a terrible way to live during what is supposed to be a time of joyous celebration for the birth of Christ!

What if there was a way to do the Christmas season differently?  A way that involved less stress and more focus on the real meaning of the season.  Well there is.

A group of church leaders got together and created an event to help change how we see Christmas.  They came up with four ways to bring back the Christ-focused Christmas and to take away the distracting stress of the season.  And so, Advent Conspiracy was born.

Worship Fully, Spend Less, Give More, Love All.  Four ways to take back Christmas for Christ!

You’re so busy right now, how do you practice worshiping fully?  Just start by remembering that Christmas begins and ends with Jesus.  Without Him we wouldn’t have Christmas, but we also wouldn’t have our salvation.  That’s a scary thought.

This Advent Season, remember that Christmas is a celebration of the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ.  He was born to take our place—a holy, perfect sacrifice to bear the burden our sins.

So this Advent Season, worship fully by giving thanks for the birth of Jesus and for your salvation, which is only possible because of His sacrifice.  Give thanks to the Lord and do all things in His name.

“And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.” (Colossians 3:17)