Christmas trees are often thought of as a simple decoration during the holidays, but they can be much more than that. Make your Christmas tree a fellowship center by opening up your home to those around you. 

Christmas can sometimes feel like a stressful time of the year, especially when it comes to the pressure of finding the right gifts and planning the perfect family get-together. However, it’s important to look beyond the materialistic aspect of what Christmas can sometimes seem to represent.

While the media tries to put an emphasis on getting the latest toy or putting the brightest lights on the house, the true spirit of the holiday is about joyously celebrating the birth of our Christ through fellowship with our loved ones.

For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. —Matthew 18:20

While many people simply focus on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day for their big family meal gathering, it’s not just those two days that can facilitate quality time with your loved ones. Opening up your home throughout December can make the most out of your Christmas tree.

Your Christmas tree can be a gathering place you can provide for others. This can be a time you can provide a meal and a place of community through hospitality and kindness. Just as Christ has shown us to love others, showing others love through fellowship can be a way to celebrate Christmas for its true meaning.

Especially in this declining economy, there are many families that have to make sacrifices that can hit hard during the holidays. This can come in the form of a family that was forced to downsize due to economic reasons, a family facing economic hardships or even a coworker that may not have family living in the area.

Opening up your home to others during their difficult times is a great way to allow your Christmas tree to become a fellowship center. Take this opportunity to open up your home in the spirit of hospitality and kindness and make your Christmas tree far more than just a decoration.

Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour. For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow: but woe to him that is alone when he falleth; for he hath not another to help him up. Again, if two lie together, then they have heat: but how can one be warm alone? And if one prevail against him, two shall withstand him; and a threefold cord is not quickly broken. —Ecclesiastes 4:9-12

Sometimes providing a meal, providing hospitality and providing a place for community can mean much more to someone than just a wrapped present. Christmas is not a singular day holiday that should just come and go without much thought. Putting into perspective all the time and energy that goes into Christmas decorations in the month of December can give a great point of view on the amount of time that should be put into thinking about the actual meaning of the holiday.

Too often people can get caught up in the frivolous aspects of Christmas rather than the true spirit of giving and kindness. While it can be easy to gripe about the stresses of the holiday and the work that goes into being a host for a family gathering, Christmas is not about focusing on yourself but is about focusing on the needs of others.

Use hospitality one to another without grudging. —1 Peter 4:9

Show Christ’s love through fellowship this December by opening up your home and providing kindness to others. While the focus of the holiday might be on only two days of the month, that doesn’t necessarily mean that you are restricted to hospitality for just those two days. Make your Christmas tree a gathering place for your friends and family and spread the love you have just as Christ has given His love to us.  

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