On television Saturday night, a two-minute commercial announced the availability of a new Christmas music collection from all my favorite artists. How they knew all my favorite artists remains a mystery.

At a recent children's ministry conference, I overheard three women discussing the need to develop Christmas plans soon. They want to make this Christmas special, even though the rest of their church's plans will remain a mystery for many more weeks.

Yes, the Christmas season will arrive soon. You'll see it in full swing within a few weeks, or less, to entice the maximum amount of purchases—and stimulate the economy, of course. At the same time, more people (Christians and non-Christians) than ever before will long for Christmas to look different. How that can happen typically remains a mystery. So nothing changes.

I confess that I'm tired of wanting Christmas to happen differently, and equally fatigued at telling others about the virtue of doing Christmas with more meaning. Can you ...