News Archives

Dec. 8, 2006

A Web-only image courtesy of First United Methodist Church The Alternative Christmas Market at First United Methodist Church, Santa Monica, Calif., allows members to write a check to support a mission project as a gift for a friend or loved one.

An Interpreter/UMNS Feature
By Ray Waddle*

Here they come again, the traditions of the late-year holidays — sumptuous party food, families reuniting, brightly wrapped gifts, soaring carols — and head-pounding stress, frayed nerves and overheated spending.

This year, take a breath, and take heart. Within reach is a world of alternative ways to buy gifts and to focus on the multilayered spirituality of Advent, leading to a meaningful Christmas.

At First United Methodist Church in Santa Monica, Calif., members are setting up a marketplace of charity — and taking a stand against thoughtless holiday materialism.

The Alternative Christmas Market at First Church is open each weekend during Advent, allowing members to write a check to support a mission project in the name of a friend or loved one, who then receives notification of the donation.

"It's a breath of fresh air," says Nikki Edwards, a member of the church. "People want to do more than spend money on items that aren't necessary."

The Santa Monica church has been doing this for nearly two decades. In 2005, it raised $20,000 for a dozen charities, local and international.

Edwards uses the Alternative Market in shopping for her three boys, ages 10, 14 and 17. Besides conventional Christmas gifts, each boy receives a card saying his parents have given money to a charity in his name. The practice usually stirs the youngsters' interest in the project, she says.

"It's a way to balance gift-giving," she says. "People in the stores talk about Christmas earlier and earlier. A lot of kids miss the whole point of the holiday: they think it's about gifts, especially receiving gifts."

Other tips for alternatives

In recent years, many churches have made alternative markets an Advent tradition.

They're doing other things, too, as a counterweight to frenzied commercialism:

• Sponsoring workshops to help families construct Advent wreaths for home use, and distributing booklets with devotions and prayers for weekly candle-lighting times.
• Erecting Angel Trees to provide toys for neighborhood children in need.
• Sharing Web sites, such as www.simpleliving.org (Alternatives for Simple Living), that give tips and ideas.
• Teaching Advent's countercultural themes of hope and justice.

More churches realize that believers are dissatisfied with aggressive commercialism and holiday stress. They want guidance to reorient their holiday rhythms around the biblical story.

At Resurrection United Methodist Church in Durham, N.C., worship leaders use royal blue as an Advent liturgical color to drive home a biblical idea of the sunrise hope of the coming King.

"If you step outside in December before sunrise, that's the color blue you'll see," says the Rev. Larry Bowden.

Beyond Dec. 25

A UMNS photo by Maile Bradfield This simple Nativity set, made of banana tree leaves, is a reminder to focus on the spiritual aspect of Advent and Christmas during the hectic holiday season.