Christmas means different things to different people. A Toyota commercial declares that Christmas is all about family. Santa is prevalent on Christmas these days, as is Mrs. Claus and Santa’s Elves. Partying is a considerable portion of the Christmas celebration. There are a small number of people have nothing to do with Christmas at all. And some treat Christmas only as the birth of Jesus, the Christ.
Christmas is indeed an economic phenomenon, and we can attribute that to various stimulation, including the gifts presented to Jesus by the Magi traveling God knows how far from the East to find this unique child who was given them in a dream.
I believe among the many things people consider when thinking about Christmas, one that not often contemplated is the concept of leadership. Leadership guru John Maxwell describes leadership as influence. Think of the importance of Christmas! What do you know that has more impact?
There are many ways to consider the influence of Christmas. I am going to address five of them.
Commercial Influence
Christmas has an enormous market influence on the economy. I suspect that we in the U.S. are leaders in that arena. Just decorating alone carries a considerable price tag. My neighborhood, my church, my neighbor’s homes and my home have all been massive economic contributors if you consider spending a contribution. Then there are the meals, parties, gifts, and donations to charitable organizations. It is not just millions of dollars impact, but trillions of dollars impact. According to a 2016 Statista survey, the numbers are almost staggering.
“According to a Statista survey carried out in 2016, most respondents stated their intention to celebrate the holiday, with only 5 percent declaring that they would not be joining in with the festivities. Christmas is typically the largest economic stimulus for many nations around the world as sales increase dramatically in almost all retail areas. The United States’ retail industry generated over three trillion U.S. dollars during the holidays in 2013. These holiday sales reflected about 19.2 percent of the retail industries total sales that year. As a result, just over 768 thousand employees were hired throughout the United States to compensate for the holiday rush.”
Finally, the Magi, who came from the East to find the Messiah, brought gold, incense and expensive perfumes to give him as gifts. One could surmise that their giving was the not only the beginning but the root of the present giving of Christmas.
Creative and Artistic Influence
Look around your home and perhaps your office to see the creativity that is unique to the Christmas celebration. Check out some Christmas and other Holiday cards, the retail stores, and light creations. It is indeed amazing and often very beautiful. Though, honestly, I have seen some homes this year that to me were almost scary looking (chuckling). Christmas cakes and cookies, fancy salad dishes and the list goes on and on. And how about some of the most significant pieces of artwork ever created? Da Vinci’s Last Supper, Michelangelo’s Last Judgement and the frescos that included the Life of Christ in the Sistine Chapel to name but a few.
When I was a child in elementary school (yes that was a while ago), we had a Christmas Pageant every year. It was the highlight of my year, even considering my birthday, which is July 4th. Everyone in my one-room schoolhouse in Huntington Center, Vermont participated, and all parents and nearby family came for that one-night event. We sang Christmas Carols and other winter songs and reenacted the manger scene in Bethlehem. It was a massive deal in a tiny town!
Family and Friends Influence
Most of us have attended gatherings with friends, meals, gift swaps, cookie swaps, company parties, and Christmas Day and Eve gatherings. In most families and individual lives, these events can be very prominent and time-consuming. There is often laughter, and plenty of conversation with hugs and many “I love you” and “Merry Christmas” greetings delivered. Sometimes broken relationships are mended both inside and outside of families.
Social and Human Rights Influence
Going back two thousand years and moving forward, the social and human rights impacts have been enormous beginning with that time in history when Imperial Rome catered to aristocrats and their pleasure. There was slavery in abundance. Women were second class citizens at best. The poor were oppressed and considered less than human. The Colosseum was a place of brutal entertainment where Christians took mauling from lions, and gladiators mutilated each other for the enjoyment of the rabid Roman spectators. Is was not until the first Christian ruler of Rome that the Colosseum activity changed. Today, the Cross of Christ sits prominently in the remains of the Colosseum.
Jesus was a gentle, kind and loving man who taught women just as he did men. He also healed the lame, helped the poor and treated everyone as if they were equal and taught his followers to do the same. His following often called a kingdom was entirely different from his Roman counterpart Caesar Augustus’ (Octavius) imperial empire. He was an heir of Julius Caesar. Some reports consider him cowardly, and yet he had high power as the Emperor of the Roman Empire.
Jesus, of course, was a lowly carpenter, without the power of the Empire behind him, but who has had the most significant social and human rights impact on the world of anyone from the beginning of time. He dared to turn himself over the be nailed to the cross for crimes not committed. And though humans have done horrific things in his name, that wasn’t who he was or anything he ever taught or promoted. Today, the Christian community exists the most charitable of any in the world, and arguably the staunchest defender of human dignity. According to the National Philanthropic Trust, Americans gave more than $390 billion in charitable contributions in 2016. Of that, 32% or approximately $125 billion went to religious organizations.
Spiritual Influence
The world’s population is approximately 7 billion people. Of that community, around 34%, or 2.4 billion are Christians. Some project that in 20 years, China will have the most extensive Christian population of any country in the world. That projection never seemed likely. There is an uncounted number of Christian bibles in the world and by far the most printed book of all time. It all boils down to influence. The influence of that one person, often referred to as the baby Jesus, whose birth is celebrated by so many people this time of year and death recognized at Easter, was astronomical, or one might say “cosmic.” And since influence equals leadership, Christmas is an enormous, in some ways incredible, and an unmatched global display of leadership.