Christ's birth seems to have receded into the background in popular celebrations of Christmas — which, we seem to have forgotten, ends this Jan. 5 on Epiphany Sunday.

Disgusted by all this materialism, many Christians have reacted by rejecting the notion of Christmas gifts at all. Among evangelicals, transferring gift-giving to Thanksgiving has been popularly discussed and practiced by some. This is touted as a return to the true spiritual celebration of Christmas. But is it?

The ideas behind removing gift-giving from the Christmas season to Thanksgiving fall down if we apply them elsewhere — for example, to Thanksgiving itself, as some say:

“Food has become the focus of Thanksgiving, even to the extent that many people call it ‘Turkey Day.’ Rather than giving thanks to God, which was the original intent of the holiday, the majority of Americans pour their all efforts into making a huge amount of food, which most of them eat to great excess. A return to the true meaning of the holiday demands that we reject turkey, pies and other trappings of gluttony and spend the day in an attitude of thanks unmarred by any distractions. This will be simply effected by moving the turkey dinner to Halloween.”

Such an argument clearly misses the point of the turkey dinner (and all its surrounding traditions of family togetherness): to remind the eaters in a very tangible way of what they have to be grateful for — and so to bring them to a deeper gratefulness. A dinner of frozen pizza is highly unlikely to have the same effect.

The answer to the abuse of a celebration should be to re-emphasize its meaning, not reject it or shift it to another day.

The same is true for the giving of gifts at Christmas and, as is also traditional, on the Epiphany.

Christmas gifts are meant to recall not only the gifts given by the Magi on the first Christmas, but, even more, the gift which the Father gave us in his only-begotten son.

“The Word was made flesh.” God did not hesitate to come as a man (i.e., as a physical, material gift) for fear that we might be d i s t r a c t e d by his physical presence from the meaning of that tremendous gift: the spiritual love that made God dwell among us. Rather, his wisdom perceived it as the best way to bring us, body and soul, into his life. From the very beginning, salvation was sacramental.

In giving gifts to one another with love on Christmas, we imitate (as best we can) the giving love of God — and, in a certain way, are able to make a return.

As the Irish author Dom Eugene Boylan said: “The expense, the worry, the trouble, the patience, the fatigue, the bitterness of financial limitations to one's power of gratifying a child's dream — the list is endless. Think alone of what is involved in Christmas shopping, where a large family and a small income are involved. And the thought can easily arise, especially for the ‘detached’ Christian: ‘Is it worth it all?’”

Of course it is worth it all. It is done in memory of Christ; it is done to build up an idea of Christ; it is done for Christ; it is done to Christ.

Amen, I say to you, whatsoever you did to these my least brethren, you did it to me.

Wendy-Irene Grimm writes from Ojai, California.