Among my friends and acquaintances I have seen two distinct camps when it comes to Christmas: the sentimental and the scrooges. There are those who cannot wait for the festivities to begin and those who are disillusioned with the commercialization and consumerism and cannot wait for it to be over. Now, I know it can be frustrating to hear the same songs over and over on the radio, and it can be disheartening to see the rampant idolatry of “stuff” in our culture, so much that you want to skip Christmas altogether. It can also be so easy to get swept away with the busyness and activities of the season that you have little time to breathe and by the time Christmas comes, like the Bethlehem inn, you have no room in your cluttered heart for Christ. An appropriate measure of both cynicism and sentimentalism are okay, but why don’t we try something different this year? Why don’t we strive to celebrate an intentional Christmas?