Here is my list, but it doesn't really matter

My family is doing something different this year for our Christmas gifts. Each person in the immediate family has to list eight broad or specific ideas about what they want. For example, here is my list:

1. Something British
2. Something to read weekly
3. Something to watch
4. Something that is a challenge
5. Something that makes me laugh, but still something I would use
6. Something that inspires
7. A currency I’ll like
8. Something to use outdoors

Although I may have had a specific gift in mind when I wrote “something to use outdoors” I may not get that, and that is one of the many things I like about this idea. I think it will bring more creativity and love into gift giving than buying gifts from a list like this:

1. Kitchen aid mixer
2. Frame
3. Stereo
4. A Compassion Child—in the flesh
5. Lamp
6. Bike

Either way I write the list I feel awfully selfish and guilty when someone asks me to provide for them a list of things I want. I feel like as a Christian I am selling out to the machine that really fuels this holiday—consumerism. I feel this way every Christmas, but come the 24th of December I don’t care if there is anything for me under that tree. I have all I need around me: a family that I love, a family that loves me, a wonderful fiancée, the best circle of friends that I will ever know, and the happiness that only Jesus can give me. And in the morning, while giving a smile, tears of joy, or laughter to those that I share this life with, I know an inestimably small portion of the joy Jesus feels everyday we serve Him and that alone is enough.