A Christmas Post- What if it were different?

What if Christmas was different?  Now, I don't mean if Christmas, Jesus being born, was different, but how we celebrate Chritmas. 

A typical Christmas in central Iowa generally looks and goes something like this...cold, snow, weather is normally questionable, Christmas music is playing almost anywhere you go, stores are full of people, decorated trees filling house windows, lights covering houses, asking for things we want, gifts under the tree with things we don't really need, Christmas dinner with more than enough to eat, more sugar than anyone should consume in a short period of time, and more people in a church building than any other time of the year.

What if it were different?  What if...it was hot, there was no music, there wasn't any flocking to the malls, no gifts, no trees, no lights, just enough food for a meal, people going to celebrate Jesus' birth any time or place.

Would that make Christmas itself any different?  There's no reason it should. 
During the Christmas Eve service, my dad talked about some of hid friends that moved to Botswana, South Africa.  He said that on Christmas day temperatures reached over 100 degrees.  They waited till after the heat of the day to go to a Christmas service in a small tin building.  Afterwords they went to thier livestock, killed a goat, and had that for their Christmas dinner.  There wasn't any possibilty of having a real tree, so the kids made one out of hand traced shaped paper and taped them on a wall.  They didn't have lights because electricity was something that they did not waste. 

It's quite amazing how location can affect a Christmas celebration.  In the end the way we celebrate really doesn't matter, but that we do so for the right reason.  God sent His son because we needed Him and what a joyous occation it was when He arrived here.  Even more joyous is that He is still living here among us today. 

Peace.