What would Jesus buy?

Warning. I'm about to get on my soap box.
This time of year is really hard for me. I love the idea of family, friends, celebrating Christ's birth but I hate the commercial aspect of it that seems to have taken over. Every year I feel empty and a bit depressed when it's all over. More so since reading about the Walmart worker that was trampled to death because a lot of people had to get the best deal after Thanksgiving. Is that who we are as a people? I hope not. I, like everyone else who believes that Christmas is the time we celebrate Christ's birth, struggle with teaching the kids the real meaning of Christmas and not the meaning that is pushed by the commercialism that engulfs our nation. Years ago we switched and limited our gift giving with the kids cause frankly they were bored opening one gift after another. Each kid gets three gifts cause if it was good enough for Jesus it's good enough for them. They love it by the way. They actually get to go slowly and play with what they've been given instead of being rushed on to the next wrapped present. We bake a birthday cake for Jesus, we read the Christmas Story in the bible and if I ever get ahead and prepare, we'll implement Advent.

Did you know that America alone spends $ 450 BILLION on Christmas every year. We shop shop shop, A lot of people rack up debt they can't afford, Suffer the traffic jams and fights over parking spots, face an overwhelming to do list and really we get a lot of gifts that are fun but we can live without. Why? Cause we believe we have to. Did you know that 1.8 million people die every year from water born illnesses. That includes 3,900 children a day. People die cause they don't have clean water to drink? It's one of the leading causes of death in the third world. Did you know that the total estimated cost to bring clean water to everyone world wide is $ 10 Billion. $ 10 billion and people are still dying because they don't have a resource we take for granted. So I found this web site mentioned on another blog I enjoy reading and I hope everyone checks it out. http://www.adventconspiracy.org/ .
Now I realize that it's a little late in the season to plan something different this year but I'm thinking that maybe other people feel the same way I do and may want to make a few changes for next year or thru the year in 2009. As for us, After discussing it with the kids, we've decided to do a lot of stuff different next year. Their excited about it and for once, I feel an overwhelming excitement for Christmas. We're not buying presents for each other. We're making them and taking the money and sponsoring a water project. At our church we have a saying.We pray, we go, we do. I can't think of a better way to honor Jesus on his birthday and to put the focus back on "it's better to give then to receive" then to fund a project that will save lives.
Now I really hope that this doesn't come across as we're patting ourselves on the back or we're doing this, you should to. It's more of a -look, one person really can make a difference, or rather 10 billion differences, one person at a time.
ps-
Imagine my suprise as I did more research on Advent Conspiracy and under the Give Water heading and in the 2008 section, there's a article that talks about the wells and Saah Joseph. We've been supporting Saah since he went back to Sierra Leone. WOW. Small world and God is in control.
If you'd like to read more about Saah, here's a link . He's an amazing person with an amazing story and Willamette Medical Teams is doing some great work in the area as well. http://willamettemedicalteams.org/saahsstory.asp .