I saw a headline just two days ago that said supply chain problems could mean bah humbug. At ports on both coasts are dozens and dozens of container ships with goods waiting to be unloaded. The backlog could mean that by the time the regular Christmas shopping season starts, traditionally the day after Thanksgiving, there will be no toys, clothing and electronics left on store shelves. By the American way of thinking no stuff means no Christmas.

Have you ever read Ecclesiastes? The book of Proverbs was written by King Solomon when he was a young man with a promising future. It’s full of good advice and wisdom sayings, some he wrote and others that he collected, which he did not always follow himself. Ecclesiastes was written at the other end of his life. Read Ecclesiastes 2:1-11. He had all the stuff any man could want, from silver and gold to servants, singers and musical instruments. But he laments through the book that everything is vanity, there is nothing new under the sun and in 2:17 says that he hates his life. Happiness does not come from stuff.

Solomon led Israel away from worshipping the only true and living God. This led to God judging Israel harshly and dividing the kingdom. Despite what manufacturers would have you believe, happiness today does not come stuff. And if we can’t get all the stuff from those cargo ships onto store shelves (or the Amazon warehouse or Walmart.com) and ultimately wrapped and under the tree, maybe Christmas this year will have to be about something else. Think back to the old black and white movies when Dad would come from work on December 24th with a live Christmas tree. As recently as the mid-20th century getting an apple and an orange, with perhaps a few pieces of hard candy, was a big deal to children on Christmas morning. Christmas didn’t used to start in October and last through the end of December. Families didn’t used to go into debt that would take months to pay off to prove to their children they loved them.

For many Americans Christmas may in fact be ruined this year. For the Christian believer, perhaps those that have taught the older tradition of St. Nicholas Day on December 6th or keep the weeks of Advent by lighting candles on their wreath, this could be your year to shine. Maybe if all the stuff doesn’t get here Christmas 2021 will look a little more like the Nativity, when a poor Jewish father and young mother couldn’t find a place to stay and wrapped their newborn in a strips of rags and laid him in a feeding trough. There were no lighted trees or stockings hung by the fireplace, just a few shepherds that puzzled the young couple talking about the sky being filled with angels.

There’s another story about all the stuff being taken away on Christmas Eve and a whole town waking up to find nothing left. As they gathered together and began to sing the Grinch wondered what was going on and a thought occurred to him for the first time: maybe Christmas was something more… than stuff. It may be a hard lesson to teach or listen to this year but if we are reminded now perhaps it will be better for us in the long run. Your children may someday tell their children and grandchildren about the year there was no stuff and we had Christmas anyway.