Christmas Presents

The magi, as you know, were wise men – wonderfully wise men who brought gifts to the Babe in the manger. They invented the art of giving Christmas presents"– quote by O. Henry

The idea of Christmas presents is a very old concept, yet the tradition has trickled down through centuries to the present state. The gift exchanging tradition had its beginning in the Roman times. Many believed that gifts or exchange of gifts brought good luck and fortune in the ancient times. Keeping with the tradition, it is still followed in the recent times on the eve of Christmas.

People like to sit back and laze around at this time of the year after toiling through busy schedules and workload. Getting over your anxious wait for Christmas is truly worth celebrating. Catching up with old friends or relatives is a great idea during this time. People like to rejoice with their friends, family and be a part of the gift giving ritual. Grand arrangements are taken care of prior to the event of Christmas so that nothing goes wrong during the Christmas time.


Christmas Presents Ideas
: Gifts are surely the finest means to convey your love and fondness for your near and dear ones. Be it your friends, family, neighbors, coworkers or anyone else, the language of presents is understood by all and sundry.

When people receive Christmas gifts of their choice, they exuberate with joy and excitement. Opening Christmas Presentsis a joyful experience. Even if the presents gifted are not impressive, the thought of giving spreads the warmth of the season. Those who really care and understand the true meaning of Christmas will not complain about presents.

What matters in the end is the feeling of sharing and caring. So, warm up those hard sentiments and let love flow through this act of giving presents. Christmas Carnivals provides you with some great Christmas present ideas that you can use to buy gifts for your loved ones in order to show your care. No doubt, with wonderful and pleasant Christmas gifts spreading warmth and happiness is not that difficult.
Tips for Christmas Presents
: While some people love traditional gifts, there are many who like to keep in sync with current trends while deciding on presents. Before finalizing the gifts, a little bit of planning and research might save the day for you. So, do not just laze around. Get into the mood of celebrations and join the excitement of finding gifts for your loved ones. It is better to make a list of the gifts before purchasing them.

There are many Christmas Present Ideas that you can consider while deciding to give Christmas gifts. While it is good to empty your wallet for buying presents, you can even work on your creativity and prepare Cheap Christmas Presents. It is better not to keep Christmas gift shopping at the last minute. There is every chance that you will mess up with your gift selection.

Types of Christmas Presents:

You can think about gifting just about anything on the eve of Christmas. While you may consider the taste of the person you wish to gift, sometimes you can also gift according to your own choice. Christmas gifts, can be broadly classified into the following,

Stationery items and gifts like books, cards, paintings, soft toys (these can the best Christmas presents for kids)
Food Items or Packaged Beauty care gifts like cookies, fragrances, personal care products
Garments and Jewelry
Gadgets like laptop, smart phones, and video games
Christmas Presents for friends and family:

Christmas is the perfect time to break the ice that may have damaged your relationships. You can also hope to start a new beginning by forgiving and forgetting. So let the powers of love wipe away all roughness by the way of Christmas gifts.


Christmas Present for Dad– To start with, you can present your Dad with a gadget or just a plain card telling him how much you really care. If he loves a certain sport or book, you can purchase a sports kit or his favorite novel as your gift for him. A smart wristwatch can make a good gift item, so think about it.
Christmas Present for Mom– Shifting to your mom, gift her teddy bear or better prepare a culinary dish and give her some rest for the day, considering all the hard work she did for you when you were small. Fragrance is another great option, if she likes perfumes. A vase full of flowers with an innovative note is another way you can surprise her and show how much her presence matters in your life. If your mom is health conscious, gift her a home spa as a Christmas present.
Christmas Present for Boyfriend– Try something unique when selecting a present for your boyfriend. You do not really need to spend a fortune to show how much you care. Tickle your creative instinct and make a homemade Christmas present, like designing a plain T–shirt with his favorite cool one–liners. Gift him a gadget if he is tech savvy. If he loves food, make him some cookies because a “man’s way to heart is through his stomach".
Christmas present for Girlfriend– Jewelry is a great option for your girlfriend if you wish to see that sparkle in her eyes. If you wish to gift her something expensive, go for a diamond and see her smile that you will treasure forever. If your girlfriend is techno savvy, a Laptop or smart phone will be an ideal Christmas present. Home made cookies or a collection of popular songs is another way you may like to impress her on the Christmas Eve.
Kid Christmas Presents – Kids eagerly wait for Christmas, as they get a chance to decorate their favorite Christmas tree with various accessories. While selecting gifts for kids make sure, you know their taste before hand. While some like soft toys, for tech savvy kids getting hold of video games is a good idea.

Well I was born a sickly little child Nearly died just after my birth For five years, I fought the illness My mother prayed and prayed, for what it's worth That time we travelled along Back home to Ireland I took sick and the doctors admit I should have died right there and then by their hands Mother called it an overdose They called it an oversight Either way, I should not have survived But since then, I've never been sick a day in my life Call it divine purpose Call it faith Watch Mass on Channel 56 And that way you'll never be late And God will thank you God will thank you Well I've seen the heavens open up I've seen the angels fly Well I've seen children killed And I've seen grown men cry I know all about Noah's ark Rain's been falling all the while And I heard about Adam and Eve But I still believe she never got a fair trial Call it divine purpose Say it's all true Well they never brought anything back from Rosewell So who are you gonna pray to And God will thank you God will thank you So maybe I only read the bible When I'm staying at the Holiday Inn I see church on Easter and Christmas But every other Sunday, I just can't fit it in But I'm coming from a true place I'm shining like a new light I'm thanking God every day For everything I have in my life Call it divine purpose Call it faith Maybe you believe in God Because the big bang theory don't hold much weight And God will thank you God will thank you God will thank you God will thank you

i thank You God for most this amazing
day:for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky;and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes

(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun's birthday;this is the birth
day of life and of love and wings:and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)

how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any--lifted from the no
of allnothing--human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?

(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)

The Heart of a Holy God

Voltaire once quipped that; "God made man in his image, and man returned the favor." Though I am not certain of his intent in the statement, I see a truth there--our values and views usually shape our understanding of God and not the other way around. This is not a good thing.

Now, we here in America love love. In fact, in most of modern Western culture, the matters of the heart are championed ceaselessly. And they're not alone! Comfort, leisure, convenience, and a painless existence are prized and pursued with passion. Not surprisingly, the church values much of the same. When we see Jesus lambaste the Pharisees for their rigid, burdensome religion, we cheer with hearty enthusiasm. When Paul says we're "saved by grace," we get positively giddy. We're not even opposed to living out love and actively loving others. Feed the hungry? Sure thing. Pray for the sick? No problem. Forgive my brother? It may be hard, but I'm gonna try! God is good, amen? Amen!

And in each of these responses, we're right on! God is good, merciful, and generous. But if I say, "Hey, let's talk about judgment and the wrath of God?" Pregnant pauses, nervous laughs, awkward silences, and subtle fidgeting are sure to ensue. People don't like that. "I mean, God is love, isn't He? That hard, angry God was just before Jesus came, right? I mean, that's hateful, fundamentalist talk, isn't it?"

We live in a culture of relativism and plurality, and we've bought into a lovey-dovey, soft-and-fluffy, love-is-easy god.1 A.W. Tozer wrote in his wonderful book, The Knowledge of the Holy, "The essence of idolatry is the entertainment of thoughts about God that are unworthy of Him." Too many people sell out for a la-la land, consumer christianity that only believes when it feels good. Even those of us willing to accept a God bigger than we can understand often find this wrathful and judging "God of the Old Testament" disconcerting. J. P. Moreland addresses this phenomenon quite well when he says,
Yes, God is a compassionate being, but he's also a just, moral, and pure being. So God's decisions are not based on modern American sentimentalism. This is one of the reasons why people have never had a difficult time with the idea of a hell until modern times. People today tend to care only for the "softer" virtues like love and tenderness, while they've forgotten the "hard" virtues of holiness, righteousness, and justice.2

Here is where the OT prophets come in really handy.

I was a Christian for about 17 years before I really started reading any of the prophetic literature of the Old Testament. In fact, in all my years of sermons and Sunday school, no one ever really taught any of it to me. Did I mind? Not really. Those books were boring, hard to understand, and portrayed a God that made me uncomfortable. Or so I thought! But now I'm beginning to see that these books are precious treasures and diamonds in the not so rough. And of these, the prize jewel is the book of Isaiah. Let me introduce you to Isaiah.

In Isaiah six, we are blessed with an account of Isaiah's personal encounter with a holy God. If we read through verse five, we see that immediately upon merely finding himself in the throne room of the Lord, Isaiah recognized his sinfulness and cried out in fear. Have you ever been in the presence of such a God? Isaiah is a man blessed with the opportunity to see clearly his iniquity and unworthiness. Faced with the presence of the Holy One of Israel, this man needed no one to tell him of his sin and the doom he deserved. This was a man who to our eyes would be respectable and good. Why then should we cringe at the idea of God punishing men for their sins?

We have this idea in our culture that love is gentle and pleasant, something akin to fairness and kindness. We Christians often accept this as true. I posit to you that such a view of love is severely anemic. Love is gritty stuff. Need I point out the primary example of love in all history? I will let Isaiah do it for me:
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him... He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering... Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows... he was pierced for our transgression, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed... the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

This isn't fair, this isn't pleasant, and this isn't gentle. This is our model for love, the cross of Christ. We know it so well that we forget what it means--the gruesome execution of the only innocent man, and the purest symbol of real love. And it's judgment. It is the very wrath of God raging against the sin of fallen man.

My favorite songwriter, the late Rich Mullins, sang of "the reckless, raging fury that they call the love of God." Those words thrill me to my core! The Lord is no pantheist's god. The Lion of Judah is strong, living, and "not a tame lion!"3 Does church bore you? Then your God is surely too small!

This "reckless, raging fury" of God's love is to me the message of the prophets. In my studies of the prophets (and especially Isaiah) to date, I feel I have been privileged to experience a small glimpse of this holy God of Isaiah's vision. These writings of the prophets are filled with the heart of God, the passionate, jealous, grieving, faithful, angry, just, and merciful heart of a holy God. Isaiah calls Him "the Holy One of Israel." That name amazes me in its insight and depth. That He is Holy, One, and would bind His Name to such a stiff-necked and idolatrous nation awes me! In that very name, I see the justice, faithfulness, and love, and I see that they are One!

So, to get to my point, this hard, wrathful "God of the Old Testament" is no less a God of love and mercy than the so-called "God of the New Testament." Indeed, His judgment and wrath are expressions of His deep love. For, "the Lord disciplines those he loves" (Prov. 3:12; Heb. 12:6). The holiness of God extolled in the Prophets is not a dead, aloof holiness, but rather a living, personal holiness that overflows with passion. The love and holiness of God are so deeply and intimately intertwined, that any effort we make to clearly distinguish them is sure to leave us with an idolatrous and broken understanding of God. So too, we should not see God as different from one testament to the next, or champion one over the other, for the whole of Scripture is no less interwoven than the whole of God.

So this is my challenge to you. If you have not yet, study the Prophets! Revel in the beauty and majesty of their poetry and prose. Therein is the voice of the living God! In a way unique among Scripture, the Prophets reveal the passion, purpose, and pain of God. So let His Word stretch and form your understanding of Him, let it mold your values. And let me leave you with this closing thought,
We think more loftily of God by knowing that He is incomprehensible, and above our understanding, then by conceiving Him under any image, and creature beauty, according to our rude understanding.4



1 The small 'g' is not a typo.
2 Taken from, The Case for Faith, by Lee Strobel. Quotes are my addition.
3 As so wonderfully described in C.S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia
4 Michael de Molino, from The Knowledge of the Holy, by A. W. Tozer
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