|
Dear Friend,
Have you started on this year’s Christmas shopping yet? If you’re like my wife, you started thinking about December gifts back in June or July. If you’re like me, you’ll rush out on a last-minute shopping trip on Christmas Eve.
Thanksgiving is just two weeks away, and some radio stations are already playing well-worn Christmas tunes as department stores decorate and rearrange aisles for holiday sales. But even as Americans gear up for our culture’s biggest gift-buying season, some Christians are avoiding the commercialism and adopting new—or old—approaches to Christmas.
In the December issue of WORLD Magazine, you’ll read about some of these unconventional approaches to the Christmas holiday. One family explains how they picked out a “Charlie Brown Christmas tree” and downsized their decorations to observe a “simple Christmas” focusing more on Jesus than on Yuletide trimmings. Another family, following convictions about the Christian celebration of holidays, decided not to observe Christmas but instead spend dedicated time with family on other occasions, such as New Year’s. Yet another family said observing liturgical church traditions such as Advent became a “beautiful way to disciple our kids very naturally.” Whatever your personal Christmas practice, I think you’ll find writer Grace Snell’s reporting on historical and modern Christmas observance to be helpful and informative as we move into the holiday season.
Also in this issue, you’ll read about medication-assisted treatment for drug addiction and how, surprisingly, it can itself result in chemical dependency that could last a lifetime. One former drug user told WORLD how he finally gave up medication-assisted treatment and joined a Christian rehab program to address the root of his problem, rather than just the symptoms.
Please read on below to see what else you’ll find in this edition of WORLD Magazine.
|
