giving is a rich way of living

come christmas, every year, we hear again the same old stories – christmas has lost its meaning, christmas is so commercialised now, where is christ in christmas? last sunday when our church had a christmas party, there was a quiz for children and when one child was asked “whose birthday is on christmas day?”, she replied, “santa claus”. horror!!

yes the same old thing surface again – that thing about ‘merry christmas’ becoming ‘happy holiday’ and the ‘christmas tree’ becoming ‘the holiday tree’ (or worst names, as kenny sia blog here). you read it in the star paper, columnist johan fernandez talked about the battle for christmas and the australian talked about santa vs jesus. last christmas i also talked about the holiday tree.

true. jesus christ is no longer the star of christmas now. it’s all about santa and his reindeer, trees, snow, christmas buffet, presents among each other and so on. for this reason, our society of st vincent de paul (SSVP in short) had embarked on a ‘keep christ in christmas’ project. we printed out thousands of special cards with a story and a strong message.
these cards are to be distributed free to all those who attends church during christmas day and beyond.

to continue reading, please click on ‘more’ below.

the card is only at size 7cm x 11.5cm – good to use as a bookmark. on the front is a picture of mother mary holding her child, jesus and on the back are some messages and logos. here is the picture of the card showing both front and back.

on your left is the back, where right on top is the ‘keep christ in christmas’ logo (later in office i will scan the logo and post it up) and the bottom logo is our society’s logo. these are the words inside the box:

GIVING IS A RICH WAY OF LIVING

Practice generosity in your own life. If you are already a generous person, press yourself to be generous until it hurts. You will soon notice that your attitudes about money and possessions are changing, your relationships are flourishing, and your outlook on life is bright.

Let us during this Christmas remember Christ by revealing Christ’s love in helping the poor. Have pity on the weak and the needy and help saves the lives of the needy.

“Help us to help the Poor!”

and below the box, are these words:

A ‘Keep Christ in Christmas’ project by
(SSVP logo)
Proceeds for the poor.
Society of St Vincent de Paul, Diocesan Council of Penang
Christmas 2005.

here is what that is inside the card (spread out both sides), a story entittled ‘mary’s christmas dream’. since you can’t see the word clearly, go to my mentaljog extra to read. i had put up the story when i blog about it last year! right below the story, you can clearly see the words “let’s put christ back into christmas”… continue with “for then there will be peace on earth for all people”.

we hope that through the distribution of this card to the church goers or to friends, chrisitans or non christians alike, we will make them aware that christmas is all about christ. actually many do know that christmas is about christ so i guess this is to remind them to put christ back into christmas.